ACB: Press Releases

Contact:	Robert Schmermund (202) 857-3104 Jim Eberle (202) 857-3145	Jim Eberle (202) 857-3145 (work) (703) 893-2593 (home) [email protected]	For Immediate Release February 11, 2002 #02-7
E-mail: [email protected]

ACB, FANNIE MAE CITE OVERWHELMING SUCCESS OF AFFINITY PARTNERSHIP&NBSP;

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WASHINGTON, D.C. ¡ª America’s Community Bankers and Fannie Mae announced today that their affinity partnership was an overwhelming success during its first year of operation. Enhancements to the partnership were also announced.

“The number of families ACB community bank members helped become homeowners through the affinity partnership with Fannie Mae greatly surpassed our expectations,” said ACB President and CEO Diane M. Casey. “We made the dream of homeownership come true for some 40,000 families — double our predictions for the first year.”

“This partnership has helped participating community banks, regardless of size, strengthen their ties to the secondary market,” said Jeffery R. Hayward, senior vice president of single family business at Fannie Mae. “We look forward to helping more ACB member banks harness the benefits of the secondary market to better serve their customers and enhance their ability to compete in their markets.”

ACB First Vice Chairman D. Russell Taylor said: “Being an active participant in the ACB/Fannie Mae Affinity Partnership has made Rahway Savings far more competitive in an already competitive marketplace for mortgage lending. This partnership gives us the tools to make housing more affordable to our customers.

“Working through this ACB/Fannie Mae Partnership, community banks will be better able to increase homeownership, especially in reaching underserved neighborhoods ©¤ as President Bush called for in his recent State of the Union address,” Taylor added. Taylor is president and CEO, Rahway (N.J.) Savings Institution.

As the second year of the program begins, Casey said enhancements have been added to benefit both community bank participants and more of the families they serve in their communities.

Fannie Mae will help community bank participants better use Fannie’s products to expand affordable housing loans to low- and moderate-income families by developing tools, products and services that meet the needs of each market segment.
Fannie Mae and ACB will actively reach into minority communities to help increase their homeownership rate.
Fannie Mae will help community bank participants migrate to Fannie’s new technology.
Fannie Mae will work with chief financial officers to develop approaches for balance sheet management.

The affinity partnership was announced in January 2001 and ACB community bankers delivered the first loans to Fannie Mae in March. More than 350 ACB members have inquired about participating in the partnership and more than 100 have joined the partnership to date.

At mid-year 2001, ACB and Fannie Mae entered into an agreement with Cenlar FSB to provide a servicing solution for banks that wanted to offer the variety of mortgage products available through the secondary market without investing in the servicing infrastructure.

Under the partnership, ACB members enjoy cost savings on residential mortgage loans delivered to Fannie Mae; access to Fannie Mae’s cutting edge technology for underwriting loans, including access through the Internet; enhanced access to Fannie Mae products to help members meet Community Reinvestment Act requirements; in-depth portfolio analysis to identify secondary market sales opportunities; educational and training support from both ACB and Fannie Mae in how to expand access to the secondary market; and expanded efforts to make use of Desktop Underwriter as a cost-effective option for ACB members.

The partnership is managed by ACB Partners, Inc., a subsidiary of ACB.

America’s Community Bankers is the national trade association committed to shaping the future of banking by being the innovative industry leader strengthening the competitive position of community banks. To learn more about ACB, visit www.AmericasCommunityBankers.com.

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