Fannie Mae announced that it will eliminate fees on its Desktop Underwriter (DU) and Desktop Originator tools. That will bring those programs in line with Collateral Underwriter and EarlyCheck, which currently are offered to lenders at no fee.
In a release announcing the move, Fannie said it was choosing to remove the fees to allow more lenders to access the value of DU in their underwriting processes and to enable the company to continue to bring innovative solutions to the mortgage process, driving certainty, loan quality and greater efficiency.
“We continue to strive to have lenders choose Fannie Mae because we provide the most insightful, innovative and effective tools in the industry,” Fannie Mae Executive Vice President, Single-Family Business Andrew Bon Salle said in the release. “For years, our technology tools have been the tools of choice for mortgage lenders across the industry. We want to continue to provide value to our lenders, and we don’t want technology fees to get in the way of lenders using our technology to its full potentialWe will continue to innovate to provide extraordinary value to our partners and help them succeed.”
In addition, Fannie said it would update EarlyCheck this fall with new loan-level data capabilities. The updates will align with the data standards in Fannie Mae’s Loan Delivery tool, meaning lenders can have more confidence that loans can be delivered to Fannie Mae prior to doing so.
Over time, Fannie Mae said, it will continue to update EarlyCheck with capabilities, including loan eligibility rules, so lenders have additional certainty that the mortgages they deliver meet Fannie Mae’s standards.