Housing Regulators Plan New Fee System

U.S. housing regulators plan to impose a new fee system and standards for mortgage servicers by mid 2012. The Federal Housing Finance Agency instructed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to work with the Department of Housing and Urban Development in order to find ways to improve mortgage servicing for borrowers. They proposed imposing a service based fee structure for poorly performing loans in place of the flat rate added onto the borrower’s interest rate that is currently in use. In addition, the FDIC, Treasury and other agencies are expected to issue a proposed risk retention rule by next month requiring lenders to assume some of the financial burden of risky loans.