Fannie Mae Says All Broker-Involved Agency Loans Must Now Be Pre-Reviewed
Mortgage lenders working with Fannie Mae will have to resubmit many of their loans to the government-backed mortgage purchaser.
The government-sponsored mortgage giant told lenders Tuesday that it was introducing a pre-review rule for all agency-backed loans that involved brokers, Commercial Observer reports. Loans that have already begun the underwriting process or have a quote outstanding will have to be resubmitted to the lender, according to the guidance obtained by CO.
The only loans involving brokers excluded from the new process are those that were committed or rate-locked by Fannie Mae prior to Tuesday, the statement says.
More details of the pre-review process couldn't be ascertained as of Wednesday evening. Multiple representatives for Fannie Mae didn't respond to Bisnow’s requests for comment.
The move from Fannie Mae comes a day after it was reported that Freddie Mac is investigating Meridian Capital Group, one of the country’s largest commercial mortgage brokers, regarding a deal New York-based Meridian negotiated with Freddie Mac.
Details of the deal that led to the investigation haven't been disclosed, but Freddie Mac has stopped working with Meridian while it investigates. Freddie Mac described the suspension of deals with Meridian as a “temporary pause” to a group of lenders, a source told The Real Deal.
Meridian put an unnamed broker on leave pending the outcome of the investigation, TRD reported. Freddie Mac and Meridian didn't respond to Bisnow's requests for comment.
David Brickman, a former CEO of Freddie Mac, left his role as executive chairman of Meridian Capital on Wednesday, TRD reported. A spokesperson for Meridian’s lending affiliate, NewPoint Real Estate, which Brickman launched after leaving the government-sponsored enterprise, told TRD the exit was a “long-planned change that was recently formalized.”
Brickman had previously spent more than 20 years at Freddie Mac. He became CEO in 2019 and left the role in 2020 before joining Meridian the following year. He was involved with the launch of NewPoint, but TRD reported that he never performed the advisory or oversight tasks typically done by executive chairs at Meridian.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are the two largest purchasers of U.S. mortgages on the secondary market.
Fannie Mae provided $106B in liquidity to the mortgage market in the third quarter and financed around 159,000 multifamily rental units, according to the lender’s third-quarter financial results.
