“Defensive lending is the mortgage equivalent of defensive medicine…rather than more medical tests, mortgage lenders are adding underwriting requirements and program restrictions to avoid overstepping a sometimes ambiguous line” that will trigger penalties from Fannie, Freddie or FHA…”
Even minor technical infractions in underwriting or documentation can cause “buyback” demands by Fannie or Freddie when loans go into default, with costs per loan for the lender sometimes soaring to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Plus the Justice Department is putting pressure on major banks to pay millions of dollars to settle allegations of systemic flaws in their mortgage practices — settlements the banks consent to not on the merits but to avoid protracted litigation and hits to their stock prices.
Both the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees giant investors Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the Federal Housing Administration, which runs the low-down-payment FHA program, are considering steps they might take to persuade lenders to open the mortgage spigots a little wider. Together, Fannie, Freddie and FHA account for more than 90 percent of all home loan funding. The focus of their little-publicized reform projects: the “overlay” rules many lenders have adopted that lump extra fees, larger down payments and higher credit-score requirements onto home loans than Fannie, Freddie or FHA require.
For example, Fannie and Freddie may accept FICO credit scores of 660 to 680, and FHA will approve applications with scores as low as 580. Yet lenders originating loans for them often want to see scores 100 points higher. Another example: FHA recently inaugurated a “streamline refi” program designed to encourage widespread refinancings for borrowers with good payment histories by offering low mortgage insurance fees, no appraisals and no credit checks.
