Ginnie Mae has issued All Participants Memorandum (APM) 24-08, announcing recovery planning requirements for non-depository Issuers whose portfolios equal or exceed a remaining principal balance (RPB) of $50 billion at the end of the calendar year. The initial recovery plans for the calendar year 2024 are due no later than June 30, 2025.
Issuers’ recovery plans must include information related to its organizational structures, as well as technology systems to provide Ginnie Mae with visibility into an Issuer’s core information systems leveraged to service its Ginnie Mae portfolio.
Through the issuance of APM 24-08, Ginnie Mae will evaluate the recovery plans submitted by the Issuers, notifying them of either approval or the need for additional information. Issuers will be required, every two years, to update and resubmit their recovery plans or attest that the most recently approved recovery plan, including any out-of-cycle material changes made to their plan, remains current.
“Ginnie Mae takes a multi-faceted approach to risk management,” said Ginnie Mae Acting President Sam Valverde. “Our new recovery planning requirements are a key component to manage counterparty risk and support seamless guaranty operations.”
The new Issuer requirements will assist Ginnie Mae in upholding its government-backed guaranty, should an Issuer fail to meet the obligations outlined in the Mortgage-Backed Securities (MBS) Guide and Guaranty Agreement(s), and to ensure that the MBS program requirements appropriately reflect the risk associated with certain Issuer profiles. In the event that an Issuer fails to meet its obligations, these recovery plans will play a key role in Ginnie Mae’s ability to transfer servicing responsibilities.
For more information on the transition to the new recovery planning requirements, click here to read Ginnie Mae’s APM 24-08.
Continued MBS portfolio growth
Ginnie Mae’s recently reported that its MBS portfolio outstanding grew to $2.57 trillion in April 2024, including $34.8 billion of total MBS issuance, leading to $14.1 billion of net growth. April’s new MBS issuance supported the financing of 110,000-plus U.S. households, including more than 53,000 first-time homebuyers. Approximately 73% of the April MBS issuance reflects new mortgages that support home purchases because refinance activity remained low due to higher interest rates. The April issuance includes $34.2 billion of Ginnie Mae II MBS and $549 million of Ginnie Mae I MBS, including $463 million in loans for multifamily housing.
For the 2024 calendar year to date, Ginnie Mae has supported the pooling and securitization of more than 190,000 first-time homebuyer loans.
New leadership takes office
In early May, Valverde entered the role of Acting President of Ginnie Mae, having previously served as the organization’s Principal EVP since January 2023. Last month, Ginnie Mae President Alanna McCargo announced that she was stepping down from her role as head of the public office.
Valverde began his tenure at Ginnie Mae in March 2022 as EVP and COO. As Acting President, Valverde will lead Ginnie Mae’s mission to link the nation’s housing market to the global capital markets, thus providing low-cost financing for federal housing programs and making affordable housing a reality for millions of Americans. He brings more than 15 years of housing finance, policy, and legal experience to Ginnie Mae. Across his career in public service, he has worked to develop market-based solutions to improve economic outcomes for all Americans.
Prior to joining Ginnie Mae, Valverde was most recently Supervisory Attorney Advisor at the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) in the Division of Conservatorship Oversight and Readiness, leading agency-wide projects intended to support greater access to mortgage credit and affordable rental opportunities for working families.