Hi, I’m Adam DeSanctis with the Mortgage Minute, the latest news from the Mortgage Bankers Association. There were two important FHA updates last week. First, FHA proposed the first comprehensive update to its minimum property requirements in twenty years. This is an issue MBA has long advocated for, urging FHA to eliminate outdated and unnecessarily prescriptive requirements, provide greater clarity and flexibility, and better align its standards with those used elsewhere in the mortgage market, particularly by the GSEs. Earlier this year, MBA and a coalition of industry groups submitted detailed recommendations to FHA calling for a more consistent risk-based framework. We’re encouraged to see FHA move forward with this proposal and are reviewing the details closely. We’ll gather member feedback and respond by the November sixth deadline. Second, MBA submitted feedback on FHA’s proposed partial claim reinstatement advance payment, or WRAP demonstration. The program would give servicers an alternative partial claim structure that eliminates the need to record a subordinate lien, reducing operational complexity and addressing challenges in non-judicial foreclosures. MBA supports the WRAP and recommended several changes to improve implementation, including greater clarity around servicing transfers, foreclosure calculations, and securitization treatment. We’ll continue working with FHA on both initiatives as these policies move forward. That’s it for this week, and if you haven’t already, go to mba.org/annualtwentysix to register for our annual convention and expo taking place in Chicago, the Windy City, on October eleventh through the fourteenth. I hope to see you there.
Adam DeSanctis, VP, Communications at Mortgage Bankers Association
As a strategic public affairs and communications executive with nearly two decades of experience, Adam has deep expertise in strategy, management, and media relations. He is widely regarded as an expert in a variety of communications, including advocacy, brand, executive, crisis, grassroots, and social media. In his career, he has been the MBA spokesperson on a wide variety of real estate research and advocacy-related issues, promoted MBA research and advocacy efforts to financial, political, and trade industry media and on MBA’s social media channels, and secured media opportunities for MBA leadership on key real estate trends and issues, generated media coverage for MBA’s research and data on mortgage applications, credit availability, homebuilder applications, mortgage forbearance/delinquencies, commercial real estate originations, and forecasts, and other industry analysis, developed key strategic initiatives for MBA’s organizational public affairs plan, media relations and member communications support for mPower, MBA’s Opens Doors Foundation and MBA’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs.