Fannie Mae Announces Day 1 Certainty Initiative

On October 24th, Fannie Mae announced the launch of ground-breaking Day 1 Certainty™, a new initiative to provide its customers with freedom from representations and warranties on key aspects of the mortgage origination process.

As part of Day 1 Certainty, Fannie Mae is offering income, assets, and employment validation services to lenders through its leading mortgage underwriting system, Desktop Underwriter® (DU®). In addition, Fannie Mae will provide freedom from representations and warranties on appraised values through Collateral Underwriter® and enhanced waivers of property inspection requirements on refinances. Together, these innovations deliver greater speed, simplicity, and certainty to lenders and borrowers. They also bring stronger risk management and promote greater digitization of data and processes to the mortgage industry.

“Day 1 Certainty is a major step forward in helping our customers transform the mortgage origination process,” said Timothy J. Mayopoulos, president and chief executive officer, Fannie Mae. “Ultimately, we want our customers to have the confidence to lend, so that more qualified borrowers have access to affordable mortgage credit. We will continue to listen to our customers and partner with them to deliver innovative solutions that address the nation’s most important housing challenges. We aim to be America’s most valued housing partner and today – with Day 1 Certainty – I am proud of the positive change we’re making for our customers and the housing finance system.”
Benefits of Day 1 Certainty:
Desktop Underwriter Validation Services for Income, Assets, and Employment:

• Provides Fannie Mae customers with tools to reduce risk and improve the experience they provide to borrowers in the primary market. DU validation services give lenders certainty on Day 1 that they will receive freedom from representations and warranties for income, assets, and employment information validated through DU.
• Validates the loan application data up-front and gives lenders faster and easier verification of key loan data components.   
• Gives lenders the ability to offer their borrowers a dramatically better mortgage experience. Borrowers will be able to save time by using electronic data versus collecting documents such as paystubs, bank statements, and investment account statements.
• Income validation is available today. Asset and employment validation will be available on December 10, 2016.

Collateral Underwriter for Greater Certainty:

• Provides Fannie Mae lenders Day 1 Certainty on appraised values.
• When a property receives a qualifying score through Collateral Underwriter, customers can be certain they will receive representation and warranty relief for the appraised value of the property.
• Enables lenders to focus more of their attention on high-risk appraisals. It also makes the process more efficient for appraisers due to fewer underwriter requests for correction and clarification.
• Collateral Underwriter freedom from representation and warranty for appraised value starts on December 10, 2016.

Enhanced Property Inspection Waiver:

• Offers customers, who use Desktop Underwriter, eligibility for a waiver of Fannie Mae’s property inspection requirement for many refinance transactions. When a waiver offer is issued and accepted by the lender, they have Day 1 Certainty that they will receive representation and warranty relief on property value, condition, and marketability.
• Shortens the origination process and reduces loan origination costs making it easier for lenders to do business and making the process easier for borrowers.
• Enhanced Property Inspection Waiver for all lenders starts December 10, 2016.

To learn more, visit www.fanniemae.com/Day1Certainty.