Jan-Feb2020

The Biz EVERYTHING NEW YOU NEED TO KNOW HECM Staff Members Discuss Priorities in 2020 At NRMLA’s 2019 Annual Meeting held Nov. 18-20 in Nashville, FHA’s key HECM staff—including senior policy adviser Joshua Miller, PhD; Erica Jessup, acting director of the Home Valuation Policy Division in the Office of Single Family Housing; and Kasey Watson, program director, servicing branch, National Servicing Center—shared HECM program performance statistics and policy priorities for 2020 that included the following: • Working with NRMLA and other stakeholders to find a replacement for the LIBOR Index; • Adding a HECM section to the Single-Family Handbook 4000.1; • Expanding capacity for HECM default counseling; • Offering more training opportunities for Mortgagees when policy changes occur; • Implementing system updates to further automate FHA processes; and • Enforcing new housing counseling rules. Beginning on Aug.1, 2020, all HUD-approved HECM counselors must meet new counselor certification requirements, which includes passing the certification examination and working for a participating agency. Steve Irwin Takes Over as NRMLA President During NRMLA’s annual business meeting, the membership elected a new Board of Directors for the 2020 term that included: • Harlan Accola, CRMP, Fairway Independent Mortgage Corp.; • John Button, ReverseVision; • Terry Connealy, Mutual of Omaha Bank; • Jim Cory, CRMP, Open Mortgage LLC; • Laura Cullen, Longbridge Financial LLC; People are talking about ... • Joe DeMarkey, Reverse Mortgage Funding LLC; • George Downey, CRMP, Harbor Mortgage Solutions, Inc.; • Leslie Flynne, Reverse Mortgage Solutions, Inc.; • Kevin Gherardi, Reverse Technology Group; • Scott Harmes, CRMP, C2 Financial Corp.; • Tim Isgro, Reverse Mortgage Funding LLC; • Reza Jahangiri, American Advisors Group; • Elly Johnson, All Reverse Pro; • Jay Jones, Champion Mortgage/Mr. Cooper; • Michael Kent, Liberty Home Equity Solutions, Inc.; • Rick Lieber, American Advisors Group; • Christopher Mayer, Longbridge Financial LLC; • Michael McCully, New View Advisors; • Jason McNamara, Celink; • Scott Norman, Finance of America Reverse LLC; • Kristen Sieffert, Finance of America Reverse LLC; • Robert Sivori, Celink; and • Patty Wills, CRMP, Open Mortgage LLC. Peter Bell, NRMLA’s CEO and then-president, also announced that he was relinquishing his role of president and formally handing over day-to-day management of NRMLA to Irwin. FHA Actuarial Report: Economic Value of HECM Improves By $7.7 Billion The financial health of the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) portfolio improved dramatically over the past federal fiscal year, ending FY 2019 with a negative stand-alone capital ratio of -9.22 percent compared to -18.83 percent in FY 2018, according to the Federal Housing Administration’s 2019 Annual Report to Congress. Put another way, the economic net worth of the portfolio improved by $7.71 billion. “Though still negative, HECM [Mutual Mortgage Insurance] capital (formerly referred to as economic net worth) improved by $7.71 billion, moving from negative $13.63 billion at the end of FY 2018 to negative 8 REVERSE MORTGAGE / JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2020