Fannie Mae Publishes Fair Servicing Best Practices Guide

Fannie Mae recently released a Fair Servicing Best Practices guide (the "Guide") to “promote servicer awareness of fair servicing best practices.” The Guide identifies compliance with fair lending and housing laws and other applicable consumer protection laws as only one component of fair servicing, stressing that fair servicing practices must be integrated into all aspects of a servicing organization in order to identify disparities and effectively mitigate risks.

The Guide includes insights gathered from servicers and consumer advocacy groups on the best available methods to provide servicing that is consistent and fair to all borrowers. These methods are grouped into categories such as training, risk/compliance, policies and procedures, monitoring/testing, governance, remediation, and consumer support, and limited English proficiency.

For a more in-depth look at the Guide and its key takeaways, please read "Focusing on Fairness: A Look at Fannie Mae's Fair Servicing Best Practices" written by Lynn Woosley, Managing Director with Asurity Advisors and our resident expert on fair lending and servicing. To read the guide in its entirety, please visit Fair Servicing Best Practices.