September 24, 2021
September Loan Product Advisor Releases and Other Upcoming Updates
We’re making Loan Product Advisor® (LPASM) updates to improve your experience and provide more transparency and clarity – to help you make faster decisions. September’s enhancements include:
- FHA requirement updates to include a borrower’s number of years on their current job.
- Enhanced asset and reserves feedback messages better tailored to your loan scenario.
Review the September LPA Release Notes document for full details and view a list of updated feedback messages.
For access to the latest feedback message updates to our tools, bookmark the Freddie Mac Loan Advisor® Resources and Learning web page.
Reminder: Retirement of CMT-indexed ARMs
In Guide Bulletin 2020-1, under FHFA guidance, Freddie Mac announced that it would cease purchasing Constant Maturity Treasury (CMT)-indexed ARMs in 2021. More recently, Guide Bulletin 2021-19 announced that Freddie Mac will not purchase any CMT-indexed ARM that has an application received date of July 1, 2021 or later. In addition, Freddie Mac will no longer purchase CMT-indexed ARMs on and after October 1, 2021, regardless of the application received date or note date.
LPA will be updated to prevent the submission of CMT-indexed ARMs on and after October 1, 2021.
Reminder: Update to SOFR ARMs with Settlement Dates on or after October 1, 2021
In Guide Bulletin 2021-25, we notified you that our requirements will be updated to require 3/6-month, 5/6-month, 7/6-month, and 10/6-month Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR) ARMs to have initial fixed interest rate periods of 36, 60, 84 and 120 months, respectively. It will no longer be a range of months.
Example: 3/6-Month SOFR ARMs fixed rate period was for a range of 30-42 months. The rate period will be updated to require 36 months on or after October 1, 2021.
Reminder: Don’t Put Off Updating Your System Access Credentials
Guide Bulletin 2020-45 announced that we are further enhancing our access management provisioning standards, consistent with Freddie Mac’s overarching objective of protecting your data from security threats.
Since that announcement, we’ve been notifying clients that, starting in 2021, system-to-system (S2S) authentication credentials for Freddie Mac tools must be reset every 365 days.
If you haven’t completed this process, check out the resources provided in the Single-Family news article to help you complete this important process and avoid the risk of suspension of your access to Freddie Mac tools.