4 servicing changes from the pandemic that HUD will keep

The upgraded Pass-Through Assistance Program that Ginnie Mae offered for single- and multifamily issuers will become permanent. The program provides emergency liquidity facilities to servicers that ran short of the funds they needed to advance while borrowers were in forbearance.

“We have looked at the program in terms of lessons learned already and have some plans to tweak some things on the edges, but overall it worked very well,” said Leslie Meaux Pordzik, senior vice president in Ginnie’s office of issuer and portfolio management. “So that is one thing we will be putting on the shelf if we need to quickly respond again to a similar type of situation that can potentially roil our issuers, and their ability to advance funds.”

While use of this program was limited because a refinance boom bolstered the cash resources of many servicers with lending arms, nine issuers took advantage of it, making 27 requests that totaled a little over $13 million. No disruption occurred in the payments Ginnie Mae insures for investors in government loan securitizations as a result, according to Pordzik.

“We heard from many issuers that while they did not take advantage of it, it calmed things down,” the Ginnie Mae executive said.