Remarks Adapted from Comments Delivered by Timothy J. Mayopoulos, President and CEO, Fannie

A note for the lawyers … my comments today should not be taken to mean anything about Fannie Mae’s future financial performance or results.

Fannie Mae comes to this year’s MBA focused on: delivering a faster, simpler, and more certain customer experience; making the housing finance system stronger; and changing how we work with you by listening and continuously improving.

Two years ago, I came here and articulated our vision to be America’s Most Valued Housing Partner.

Last year, I outlined our progress and our goal to make your experience as a Fannie Mae customer simpler and more certain.

Today, I am happy to announce that this goal of a simpler and more certain customer experience is a reality.

Today, we are announcing Day 1 Certainty™ – our delivery of tangible solutions to meet your challenges.

Our announcement has three parts:  

1. We will begin to offer data validation services through Desktop Underwriter® (DU®).
2. We will provide certainty on appraisals through Collateral Underwriter®.
3. We will make it easier for customers to receive property inspection waivers on refinances.

Day 1 Certainty is a big step toward positive transformation of the mortgage origination process.

These new tools will make doing business with us faster, simpler, and more certain. 

Let me share more information on how each of these important innovations will work.

Validation Services Through Desktop Underwriter

Over last 12 months, we have spoken about using 3rd parties to validate borrower income and providing freedom from reps & warrants on income & income calculation.

Starting right now, we are providing that freedom. If you validate income through DU, you can be certain from Day 1 that we will not ask you to repurchase a mortgage loan because income data is incorrect.

And we are going further. Starting on December 10, we are providing validation service for assets and employment status and freedom from reps and warrants for those as well.

And we are improving the quality of loan information at the front end of process. This means great potential benefits for customers and the industry as a whole.

Let me be clear:  we are providing these tools as your secondary market partner. Our goal is to give you more ability to reimagine and improve the experience you provide borrowers in the primary market.

Starting December 10, Day 1 Certainty on Appraisals

Starting December 10, you can use Collateral Underwriter to gain freedom from reps and warrants on the appraised value of the property.

You will be able to leverage the power of Collateral Underwriter to gain certainty that we won’t ask you to repurchase because of appraisal value.

This is a big benefit to lenders and reduces risk throughout system.

We Are Making it Easier to Get Property Inspection Waivers on Refinances

We have had and ongoing pilot on property inspection waivers on refinances. Starting December 10, we will make it possible for all lenders to use the combined power of Collateral Underwriter and Desktop Underwriter to obtain a waiver on the appraisal for eligible refinances.

When you accept a waiver, you can be certain on Day 1 that we will not come back and ask you to repurchase the loan due to the value, condition, or marketability of the property.

What Does It All Mean For You

Taken together, the innovations that make up Day 1 Certainty can have a big impact for you, our customers, and for the mortgage process.

Day 1 Certainty represents a major stride forward in what we can offer you as your secondary market partner:

• Less risk: confidence that when you sell a loan to us, it stays sold.
• Simplicity: automates key aspects of the loan manufacturing process.
• Speed: streamlines the process, making it faster and more efficient. 

More broadly, Day 1 Certainty means very real benefits to the broader housing finance system, including:

• stronger and better risk management and
• greater digitization of data and processes.

More is Possible

We are not stopping with today’s announcement. We believe that more is possible.

We believe it is possible to bring an end to the reps and warrants framework as we know it today.

We believe it is possible to achieve Day 1 Certainty, in real time, across a fully-digitized mortgage process. That’s the vision we are driving toward.

I want to thank you, our customers, for making today’s announcement possible. There’s been lots of pain over the last several years across the industry as you have invested in data uniformity.

We all know the alphabet soup – UMDP, URLA, ULAD, UCDP, and UCD.

Today, we are seeing the return on your investment. Data uniformity is precondition for progress in this area.

The other precondition has been our commitment to listening to you over these past several years.

We heard what you wanted. We built the technology tools, vigorously tested them, and delivered them to you.

I encourage you to use these new tools to lend to the full extent of our credit box.

Conclusion

Will continue to listen, innovate, and put you at the center of everything we do so we can keep improving your customer experience and so we can help you do more to grow your business.

We will continue to partner with you, so together we can tackle the nation’s most important housing challenges, including access to credit and affordability.

We know that to be your most valued housing partner we need to be a company that you do business with – not because you have to, but because you want to.

You have my commitment that we will work every day to win your business.

Striving to win your business makes us better. It helps you grow and deliver for borrowers. And it makes housing finance stronger.

Thank you.