Wells Fargo Joins TD Bank in Easing Credit Standards

Wells Fargo & Co., the biggest U.S. home lender, two weeks ago cut its minimum credit score for borrowers of Fannie Mae- and Freddie Mac-backed loans to 620 from 660. The step followed moves by smaller lenders, such as the U.S. unit of Canada's Toronto-Dominion Bank, which lowered down payments to 3% without requiring mortgage insurance for some loans. The impact of these moves points to a couple of factors in the market - one, that banks like Wells Fargo are looking to broaden their portfolio horizon; the other is that these banks might have increased confidence in the economy.

Banks ratcheted up borrowing requirements after the most severe housing crash since the Great Depression, preventing as many as 1.2 million loans from being made in 2012, according to an Urban Institute paper. Lenders rode a wave of refinancing until a spike in borrowing costs last year gutted demand, forcing the biggest banks to cut more than 25,000 mortgage jobs. Now they're removing barriers to mortgages for some borrowers in hopes of reviving a shrinking market.

"We threw the baby out with the bathwater because we had to," said Rick Soukoulis, chief executive officer of San Jose, Calif.-based lender Western Bancorp. "From there, you start to inch back. If you keep selling only what isn't selling, you're just dead."

Lowering standards - good for home buyers. Hope it does not go to new lows !! 

In March, credit standards were the loosest in at least two years, according to a Mortgage Bankers Association index. The measure, based on underwriting guidelines, rose to 114 from 100 when it started in 2012. The index would have been at about 800 in 2007, meaning credit was eight times looser that year, before standards were tightened.

Home buyers with higher debt and lower FICO credit scores are now a growing minority among borrowers of loans backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-owned mortgage giants.

Almost 16% of the mortgages for home purchases in March went to borrowers with monthly debt obligations exceeding 43% of their pay, according to data compiled by Morgan Stanley. That's up from 13.4% in mid-2012. Federal rules deployed in January expose lenders to liabilities if their mortgages without government backing require payments that, when combined with other debts, exceed 43% of the borrower's income, without proof they can be repaid.

More than 23% of the mortgages in March went to property buyers with credit scores less than 720, an above-average measure on Fair Isaac Corp.'s scale that ranges from 300 to 850. That's an increase from 15.6% in mid-2012, according to Morgan Stanley.

After housing values collapsed in 2008, banks raised their credit standards to the highest level in more than two decades. By 2011, the average credit score of an approved mortgage reached 750, according to mortgage processor Ellie Mae. Fannie Mae required only a score of 620 after raising its minimum from 580 in 2009.

"The pendulum swung too far," said John Taylor, CEO of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, a Washington-based organization that brings credit and banking services to middle- and low-income consumers. "They over-tightened the standards to the point where qualified borrowers couldn't get access to credit."

The banks boosted requirements partly to stem the costs of having to repurchase soured mortgages. As defaults soared, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac used a clause in their purchase agreements that let them return loans to lenders if they went bad after faulty underwriting.

In 2009, Fannie Mae asked lenders to buy back $12.4 billion of mortgages, according to a regulatory filing. The number soared to $23.8 billion in 2012, eating into banks' earnings, before dropping to $18.5 billion last year, according to filings.

Franklin Codel, head of production for San Francisco-based Wells Fargo, said clearer communication with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac about underwriting rules is now allowing the bank to widen credit availability.

"We have more confidence that should the loans go into default we've done our job properly and we aren't going to get a repurchase," Codel said.

While Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac borrowers with lower credit scores must prove the ability to sustain homeownership, Wells Fargo will look for "compensating factors" to close the loan, Codel said. That may include requesting an explanation of a credit history event, reviewing the strength of income and the stability of employment, he said.

Lenders are also relaxing requirements in response to a drop in demand for mortgages. In 2013, a surge in borrowing costs undercut the refinancing boom. Interest rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages rose from a record low of 3.31% in November 2012 to 4.58% in late August, according to Freddie Mac surveys. Rates fell last week to 4.33%.

Home prices that have risen 28% since a 10-year low in 2012 have also stymied lending, particularly to first-time buyers. Cash purchases mostly by investors have filled the void, accounting for 33% of sales in March compared with 12% in mid-2009, according to the National Association of Realtors.

In April, Mortgage Bankers Association Chief Economist Mike Fratantoni lowered his forecast for home-purchase loans in 2014 to $626 billion. That compares with $652 billion last year. He also reduced his forecast for total originations this year by $100 billion to $1.07 trillion. In 2013, lenders originated $1.76 trillion in mortgage credit.

As mortgage volumes decline, lenders are suffering losses. Only 58% of independent mortgage banks and bank home-loan units were profitable in the final quarter of 2013, according to a Mortgage Bankers Association survey. JPMorgan Chase & Co., the second-biggest U.S. mortgage lender, said in April that its origination business lost money last quarter and would again do so in the second period.

To increase lending, Wells Fargo has made it easier for borrowers who would have limited equity to include gifts from relatives as part of a downpayment, Codel said. In January, the bank began to accept borrowers with credit scores of 600, down from 640, for FHA loans.

Wells Fargo also will increase its loan-to-value ratios, permitting larger mortgages relative to the worth of the property, in several states this month, Codel said, declining to provide more details. Raising maximum LTVs lowers the requirements for downpayments or minimum home equity that must be maintained in refinances, measures meant to protect lenders or insurers in the case of defaults.

Western Bancorp started offering mortgages with "alternative income verification" at the beginning of the year. So far, the loans are only available to borrowers putting down at least 35%, though the lender hopes to lower that to 30% soon, CEO Soukoulis said.

The lender, which sells the mortgages to community banks, skips the examination of tax returns and pay stubs by using software to vet the income of a self-employed applicant. The technology turns information on their bank statements into data, and then analyzes what it says about their cash flow. The process boils down to "rational" old-school underwriting, Soukoulis said.

The TD Bank unit, which mostly holds mortgages on its balance sheet, in April lowered the downpayment requirement for some loans to 3% from 5%. These mortgages don't force borrowers to take out private or FHA insurance, a typical requirement for loans that account for more than 80% of a home's value. The downpayment can be covered by gifts from family, a government program or a nonprofit.

Peoples Privo Processing is looking to increase its share of the contract mortgage processing business as a direct result of these moves by large banks. www.peoplesprocessing.com