The FHA and Ginnie Mae continue to face risk-management challenges despite steps they have taken to better assess, manage and minimize risk, according to an updated report from the Government Accountability Office. The report said recommendations the GAO made in a previous assessment to improve risk management have not been fully implemented at either of the agencies. Both agencies, however, said efforts are underway to implement GAO recommendations. The FHA is getting more scrutiny from Congress because of the weak condition of the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund, whose capital reserve ratio has ...

Ginnie Mae will question certain mortgage-backed securities issuers about reporting inconsistencies in pool data submissions over the last couple of months and try to resolve those issues to avoid delay in MBS pool processing. In an audio conference with issuers last week, Ginnie Mae officials said agency staff discovered the flawed data submissions while poring over several months’ worth of pool data submitted by issuers. While most of the information fell within theVargas said the discrepancies were attributed to a small group of issuers, who will be contacted soon to work on corrections before Ginnie Mae puts stronger edits up front. She said the agency wants to ...

State housing finance agencies are returning to Ginnie Mae as investors’ appetite for state mortgage revenue bonds continue to wane and the government-sponsored enterprises are no longer major purchasers. With funding severely constrained, HFAs have turned increasingly to FHA-insured mortgage loans and Ginnie Mae securitization to finance their long-term, fixed-rate mortgage revenue bonds. The MRBs enable the state agencies to continue to offer mortgage products at affordable rates to lower-income and first-time homebuyers. President Obama’s FY 2013 budget noted that, among the new issuers, numerous HFAs have gone ...

Ginnie Mae will publish, in advance, the CUSIP and pool information for multiple issuer pools (MIP) on its website for the current month, plus the upcoming three months of issuance. The information will be published by pool term, pool type and security interest rate. This enhancement applies to all securities with an April 1, 2012, issue date and thereafter. According to Ginnie Mae, publishing the CUSIP and pool numbers will improve issuers’ ability to manage their loan pipelines and MIP loan package submissions before the pool is finalized. Both the finalized CUSIP and pool numbers as well as the future CUSIP and pool numbers for MIPs will be ...

Ginnie Mae is requesting additional funding in FY 2013 to hire more professionals to help manage the more than $1.2 trillion in outstanding guaranteed mortgage securities it holds and the increasing inherent risks associated with the MBS. Under its budget proposal, the agency is seeking an appropriation of $21 million for staff salaries and expenses in 2013, up from $19.5 million in 2012 and $11.07 million in 2011. The requested staffing increase would ensure improvement in managing areas where Ginnie Mae has the greatest risk exposure, including counterparty risk and defaulted portfolio management, according to the agency. Over the past few years, Ginnie Mae’s market share rose ...

Beginning this month, Ginnie Mae will start assigning alphanumeric IDs for mortgage-backed securities pools because it may soon run out of available pool numbers. In a recent alert to issuers, Ginnie Mae said alphanumeric pool numbers will be assigned first to fixed-rate types. However, issuers must make sure they have used up all their assigned pool numbers before asking for the new letter/number codes. Ginnie Mae advised issuers in 2009 to have their systems ready to accept alphanumeric IDs by March 2010. Meanwhile, MountainView Servicing Group has announced its offering of ...

Ginnie Mae said it may begin assigning alphanumeric pool numbers for MBS pools as soon as next month because it is fast running out of available pool numbers. The agency said fixed-rate pool types will be the first recipients of the alphanumeric pool numbers. Issuers should make sure that all their remaining assigned pool numbers are used before using the newly assigned alphanumeric IDs. Issuers were advised in 2009 to have their systems ready to accept alphanumeric IDs by March 1, 2010. In another development, MountainView Servicing Group has announced its offering of a $129 million portfolio of Ginnie...

Ginnie Mae may have reported potentially inaccurate data to Congress about its exposures because estimates were not based on the best available data, according to a recent report by the Government Accountability Office. The agency’s sensitivity analysis also ignored important data, which could affect the accuracy of its cash-flow forecasts, the report said. Although Ginnie Mae has revised its cash-flow forecast model, it has not implemented practices identified in Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board guidance and risk-budgeting guidance, the report noted. By ignoring such practices, Ginnie Mae’s model may not be ...

Ginnie Mae recently announced changes to rules implementing provisions under the Servicemembers’ Civil Relief Act for reimbursing excess mortgage interest to Ginnie Mae issuers. Under the revised SCRA reimbursement policy, issuers will be reimbursed excess interest payments on SCRA mortgage loans based on two different dates for reservists and active members of the military, said Ginnie Mae officials during an issuer outreach webinar on Dec. 8. If the borrower is a reservist, the reimbursement will be based on the date of the receipt of the deployment letter and reimbursements for active members will be based on the deployment date. Under the SCRA, mortgage lenders are required to ...

The fallout from Taylor, Bean & Whitaker’s collapse in 2009 continues to haunt Ginnie Mae after a recent independent auditor’s report found a potential overstatement of the agency’s portfolio of mortgages-held-for-investment (MHFI) apparently linked to the TBW debacle.The report by Clifton Gunderson, a Fairfax, VA-based certified public accounting firm, attributes the apparent portfolio anomaly to the current document custodian’s failure to complete a review and provide a final certification on the non-performing TBW loans. Ginnie Mae repurchased the loans from the defaulted TBW mortgage-backed securities pools and reclassified them as MHFIs. Overall, independent auditors signed off on Ginnie Mae’s FY 2011 balance sheet and found no material weaknesses in internal control over financial reporting or any instance of noncompliance. Auditors, however, noted ...