TheMReport

62 | TH E M R EP O RT THE LATEST O R I G I NAT I O N S E R V I C I N G DATA G O V E R N M E N T S E C O N DA R Y M A R K E T LOCAL EDITION LOCAL EDITION Freddie Mac Teams With Equifax THE GOAL WILL BE TO STREAMLINE THE PROCESS FOR HOMEBUYERS WORKING WITH FREDDIE MAC TO SECURE A MORTGAGE. GEORGIA // Equifax Inc., a glob- al information-solutions company based in Atlanta, announced that it would be working with Freddie Mac to fully automate the assess- ment of borrower income. This will be done via the integration of Equifax's income-verification tool, The Work Number, with Freddie Mac's Loan Advisor asset-assess- ment tool. The goal will be to streamline the process for home- buyers working with Freddie Mac to secure a mortgage, thus making the origination process easier and more efficient from point-of-sale through securitization. Equifax's Work Number data- base is the nation's largest central- ized repository of payroll data, containing more than 350 million payroll records. Equifax made its income verification data available to Freddie Mac last year as part of a limited release, but Freddie Mac now plans to offer it broadly to its clients in the coming months. Through Loan Product Advisor, the cornerstone of Freddie Mac Loan Advisor Suite, automated asset-assessment capabilities relieve lenders from certain represen- tations and warranties. The automated tool seeks to lower the cost of the origination process for lenders and borrowers. "We're focused on helping our lenders reduce costs, maintain high-quality loans, and deliver a superior borrower experience," said Samuel E. Oliver III, VP of Major Project Execution for Single Families at Freddie Mac. "Our collaboration with Equifax to expedite the assessment of income is giving our clients this competi- tive advantage." "We're thrilled to be working with Freddie Mac to reimagine and automate the mortgage expe- rience and to ultimately provide the industry with insights to help drive more informed lending decisions," said Jennifer Henry, VP of Equifax Mortgage Services. "We now support the two most prominent GSEs which gives lenders the flexibility they require to deliver a superior digitally em- powered customer experience." The Rankings Are In MOODY'S RATES WELLS FARGO RMBS. CALIFORNIA // Rating agency Moody's Investor Services has assigned a provisional rating to the 24 classes of Wells Fargo's first residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS). The bank has re-entered the RMBS market after a decade with the Wells Fargo Mortgage Backed Securities 2018-1 Trust ("WFMBS 2018-1"). The WFMBS 2018-1 transaction consists of the securitization of 660 primarily 30-year fixed-rate prime residential mortgage loans with an unpaid principal balance of approximately $441 million, Moody's indicated. Giving the securitizations a rat- ing range from (P)Aaa (sf) to (P)Ba1 (sf), Moody's said, "The pool has strong credit quality and consists of borrowers with high FICO scores, significant equity in their proper- ties, and liquid cash reserves. The pool has clean pay history and is seasoned for almost 18 months." According to Moody's, the mort- gage loans for this transaction are originated by Wells Fargo Bank per the non-conforming underwriting guidelines. All of the loans are designated as qualified mortgages (QM) under the QM safe harbor rules, the rating agency said. Speaking to MReport, a spokesperson for Wells Fargo had recently said that the offering would include newly originated nonconforming prime loans that were "consistent with those we have been putting on our balance sheet for the past several years." The rating also gave insights into how Wells Fargo planned to service the loans. It indicated that the bank would be the master servicer for this transaction. Wells Fargo will service all the loans and will also be the master servicer for the transaction. Wells Fargo will be primarily respon- sible for funding certain services advances and delinquent scheduled interest and principal payments for the mortgage loans unless they determined that such amounts would not be recoverable. "In the event a servicer event of default has occurred and the Trustee terminates the servicer as a result thereof, the master servicer shall fund any advances that would otherwise be required to be made by the terminated servicer (to the extent the termi- nated Servicer has failed to fund such advances until such time as a successor servicer is appointed and commences servicing the mortgage loans," Moody's said. "The master servicer and servicer will be entitled to be reimbursed for any such monthly advances from future payments and col- lections (including insurance and liquidation proceeds) with respect to those mortgage loans." The bank couldn't have picked a better time to enter this market with the issuance of private-label RMBS hitting a postcrisis high of $75 billion in 2018, according to a recent Bloomberg report, due to heavy investor demand for non- qualified mortgage transactions. Wells Fargo had been one of the top RMBS lenders before the crisis with more than $1 trillion worth of mortgages sold in 2005 and 2006, the Bloomberg report said. Wells Fargo is headquartered in San Francisco, California. SECONDARY MARKET

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