A mortgagee in Washington state had its direct-endorsement approval yanked from the Federal Housing Administration, while a Texas-based wholesale lender lost approval in North Carolina.
The terminations of direct endorsement approval were disclosed in a public filing Thursday by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Both occurred on July 18.
According to HUD, the actions were taken as part of the FHA Credit Watch Termination Initiative.
“The approval may be terminated on the basis of poor performance of FHA-insured mortgage loans underwritten by the mortgagee,” the housing agency explained.
HUD said it terminates authority when loans endorsed during the prior 24 months have a default and claim rate that is worse than the national rate and exceeds the local rate by 200 percent.
The first of the two companies was AmericaHomeKey Inc. The Dallas-based company promotes wholesale lending programs on its Web site.
After this story was originally published, an attorney for AmericaHomeKey clarified in a statement that the loss of the direct-endorsement authority only applied to HUD’s Greensboro, N.C., field office.
“AmericaHomeKey’s approval as a direct endorsement underwriter has not been terminated by HUD, and the company is free to underwrite FHA-insured mortgages in all other HUD field offices across the country where its 66 FHA-approved branch offices conduct business,” the statement said. “The action in North Carolina also resulted after AmericaHomeKey voluntarily made the decision to cease conducting business in North Carolina and closed its branch office in the state.
“In short, AmericaHomeKey remains an approved Direct Endorsement underwriter for FHA loans.”
Also losing its direct-endorsement authority was Sydion Financial LLC. The Seattle-area lender, which is owned by Spencer Richardson, lost the approval for HUD’s field office in Seattle.
Any loans already underwritten and approved by the two firms can still be submitted for FHA endorsement. Loans not yet approved can be transferred to an approved mortgagee to complete processing and underwriting.
AmericaHomeKey and Sydion can apply for reinstatement of its FHA direct-endorsement approval after six months as long they meet all current requirements and present an analysis by an independent certified public accountant that determines why the loans were performing poorly. The analysis must be accompanied by a written action plan that addresses the issues outlined in the analysis and proves that the plan has been implemented.
