Mortgage Loans (Policies)

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2020

SEC Schedule, 12-29, Real Estate Companies, Investment in Mortgage Loans on Real Estate [Abstract]

Financing Receivable, Held-for-investment [Policy Text Block]

Loans Held for Investment

When we acquire mortgage loans that we have the ability and the intent to hold for the foreseeable future or until maturity, we classify the loans as HFI. When we consolidate a securitization trust, we recognize the loans underlying the trust in our condensed consolidated balance sheets. The trusts do not have the ability to sell mortgage loans and the use of such loans is limited exclusively to the settlement of obligations of the trusts. Therefore, mortgage loans acquired when we have the intent to securitize via consolidated trusts are generally classified as HFI in our condensed consolidated balance sheets both prior to and subsequent to their securitization.

We report the carrying value of HFI loans at the unpaid principal balance net of unamortized premiums and discounts, other cost basis adjustments, and allowance for loan losses. We define the amortized cost of HFI loans as unpaid principal balance and accrued interest receivable, net, including any unamortized premiums, discounts, and other cost basis adjustments. For purposes of our condensed consolidated balance sheets, we present accrued interest receivable separately from the amortized cost of our loans held for investment. We recognize interest income on HFI loans on an accrual basis using the effective yield method over the contractual life of the loan, including the amortization of any deferred cost basis adjustments, such as the premium or discount at acquisition, unless we determine that the ultimate collection of contractual principal or interest payments in full is not reasonably assured.

We report the amortized cost of HFI loans for which we have not elected the fair value option at the unpaid principal balance, net of unamortized premiums and discounts, other cost basis adjustments, and accrued interest receivable, net. For purposes of our condensed consolidated balance sheet, we present accrued interest receivable, net separately from the amortized cost of our loans held for investment

Financing Receivable, Held-for-sale [Policy Text Block]

Loans Held for Sale

When we acquire mortgage loans that we intend to sell or securitize via trusts that will not be consolidated, we classify the loans as held for sale (“HFS”). We report the carrying value of HFS loans at the lower of cost or fair value. Any excess of an HFS loan’s cost over its fair value is recognized as a valuation allowance, with changes in the valuation allowance recognized as “Investment gains (losses), net” in our condensed consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive income. We recognize interest income on HFS loans on an accrual basis, unless we determine that the ultimate collection of contractual principal or interest payments in full is not reasonably assured. Purchased premiums, discounts and other cost basis adjustments on HFS loans are deferred upon loan acquisition, included in the cost basis of the loan, and not amortized. We determine any lower of cost or fair value adjustment on HFS loans at an individual loan level.

For nonperforming loans transferred from held for investment (“HFI”) to HFS, based upon a change in our intent, we record the loans at the lower of cost or fair value on the date of transfer. When the fair value of the nonperforming loan is less than its amortized cost, we record a write-off against the allowance for loan losses in an amount equal to the difference between the amortized cost basis and the fair value of the loan. If the amount written off upon transfer exceeds the allowance related to the transferred loan, we record the excess in provision for credit losses. If the amounts written off are less than the allowance related to the loans, we recognize a benefit for credit losses.

Nonperforming loans include both seriously delinquent and reperforming loans, which are loans that were previously delinquent but are performing again because payments on the mortgage loan have become current with or without the use of a loan modification plan. Single-family seriously delinquent loans are loans that are 90 days or more past due or in the foreclosure process. Multifamily seriously delinquent loans are loans that are 60 days or more past due.

In the event that we reclassify a performing loan from HFI to HFS, based upon a change in our intent, the allowance for loan losses previously recorded on the HFI mortgage loan is reversed through earnings at the time of reclassification. The mortgage loan is reclassified into HFS at its amortized cost basis and a valuation allowance is established to the extent that the amortized cost basis of the loan exceeds its fair value. The initial recognition of the valuation allowance and any subsequent changes are recorded as a gain or loss in “Investment gains (losses), net.”

We report the carrying value of HFS loans at the lower of cost or fair value and record valuation changes in “Investment gains (losses), net” in our condensed consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive income.

Troubled Debt Restructurings [Policy Text Block]

A modification to the contractual terms of a loan that results in granting a concession to a borrower experiencing financial difficulties is considered a TDR. In addition to formal loan modifications, we also engage in other loss mitigation activities with troubled borrowers, which include repayment plans and forbearance arrangements, both of which represent informal agreements with the borrower that do not result in the legal modification of the loan’s contractual terms. We account for theseinformal restructurings as a TDR if we defer more than three missed payments. We also classify loans to certain borrowers who have received bankruptcy relief as TDRs. However, our current TDR accounting described herein is temporarily impacted by our election to account for certain eligible loan modifications under the COVID-19 Relief granted pursuant to the CARES Act.

New Accounting Pronouncements, Policy [Policy Text Block]

New Accounting Guidance

The CARES Act and Interagency Regulatory Guidance

Section 4013 of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, referred to as the CARES Act, which was enacted in March 2020, provides temporary relief from the accounting and reporting requirements for TDRs regarding certain loan modifications related to COVID-19. The CARES Act provides that a financial institution may elect to suspend the TDR requirements under GAAP for loan modifications related to the COVID-19 pandemic that occur between March 1, 2020 through the earlier of December 31, 2020 or 60 days after the date on which the COVID-19 national emergency terminates (the “Applicable Period”), as long as the loan was not more than 30 days delinquent as of December 31, 2019. Loan modifications are defined in this section of the CARES Act to include forbearance arrangements, repayment plans, interest rate modifications, and any similar arrangement that defer or delay the payment of principal or interest.

We have elected to account for eligible loan modifications under Section 4013 of the CARES Act. Therefore, the initial relief (i.e., the forbearance arrangement) and the subsequent agreements (i.e., repayment plans and loan modifications) that are necessary to allow the borrower to repay the past due amounts (collectively, the “COVID-19 Relief”), will not be subject to the specialized accounting or disclosures that are required for TDRs if the initial relief related to COVID-19 is granted during the Applicable Period and the borrower was no more than 30 days past due as of December 31, 2019.

In addition to the CARES Act, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, National Credit Union Administration, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the State Banking Regulators (collectively, the “Banking Agencies”) issued an Interagency Statement on Loan Modifications and Reporting for Financial Institutions Working with Customers Affected by the Coronavirus (the “Interagency Statement”) in April 2020. The Interagency Statement primarily provides incremental guidance related to the nonaccrual of interest income. It indicates that financial institutions may continue to accrue interest income on loans that are granted short-term payment delays, such as forbearance, if the delay is in response to COVID-19 and the loan was less than 30 days past due at the time the delay was granted.

Pursuant to the Interagency Statement, we will continue to recognize interest income at the current contractual yield for up to six months on loans that were current at March 1, 2020 and have been negatively impacted by COVID-19. For loans that are in a forbearance plan beyond six months of delinquency, we will continue to accrue interest income provided collection of principal and interest continues to be reasonably assured.

Our evaluation of whether the collection of principal and interest is reasonably assured will consider the probability of default, the current value of the collateral, and any proceeds that are expected from contractually attached mortgage insurance. Once the forbearance period has ended, we will also consider the extent to which the borrower and the servicer have agreed to any of the loss mitigation options that are available. For single-family loans placed on nonaccrual status, cash payments are applied as a reduction of accrued interest receivable until the receivable has been reduced to zero, and then we recognize income on a cash basis when payments are received.

For multifamily loans on nonaccrual status, we apply any payment received on a cost recovery basis to reduce accrued interest receivable to zero and then reduce principal on the mortgage loan. Multifamily loans will not be placed on nonaccrual status while the loan is well secured and in the process of collection.

For loans that have been negatively impacted by COVID-19, we establish a valuation allowance for expected credit losses on the accrued interest receivable balance applying the process that we have established for both single-family and multifamily loans. The credit expense related to this valuation allowance is classified as a component of the provision for credit losses. This receivable is written off when the amount is deemed to be uncollectible, in accordance with our write-off policy for mortgage loans.

As a result of this update to the application of our nonaccrual policy for loans negatively impacted by COVID-19, we recognized $1.5 billion in interest income for the three and six months ended June 30, 2020. We also recognized $172 million of provision for loan losses on the related accrued interest receivable as of June 30, 2020.

The Current Expected Credit Loss Standard

The Financial Accounting Standards Board (the “FASB”) issued Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) 2016-13, Financial Instruments—Credit Losses (Topic 326), Measurement of Credit Losses on Financial Instruments in June 2016, which was later amended by ASU 2019-04, ASU 2019-05 and ASU 2019-11. These ASUs (the “CECL standard”) replaced the existing incurred loss impairment methodology for loans that are collectively evaluated for impairment with a methodology that reflects lifetime expected credit losses and requires consideration of a broader range of reasonable and supportable forecast information to develop a lifetime credit loss estimate. The CECL standard also requires credit losses related to AFS debt securities to be recorded through an allowance for credit losses. Our adoption of this standard on January 1, 2020 did not have a material impact on our portfolio of AFS debt securities.

The CECL standard became effective for our fiscal year beginning January 1, 2020. We have changed our accounting policies as described above and implemented system, model and process changes to adopt the standard. Upon adoption, we used a discounted cash flow method to measure expected credit losses on our single-family mortgage loans and an undiscounted loss method to measure expected credit losses on our multifamily mortgage loans. The models used to estimate credit losses incorporated our historical credit loss experience, adjusted for current economic forecasts and the current credit profile of our loan book of business. The models used reasonable and supportable forecasts for key economic drivers, such as home prices (single-family), rental income (multifamily) and capitalization rates (multifamily).

The adoption of the CECL standard on January 1, 2020 reduced our retained earnings by $1.1 billion on an after-tax basis. The adoption of this guidance increased our overall credit loss reserves primarily as the result of an increase in our single-family loan loss reserves that were previously evaluated on a collective basis for impairment. This increase was partially offset by a decrease in estimated credit losses on loans that were previously considered individually impaired (our TDRs).

The increase in our single-family loan loss reserves that were previously evaluated on a collective basis was primarily driven by the migration from an incurred-loss approach, which allowed us to consider only default events and economic conditions that already existed as of each financial reporting date, to an estimate that incorporates both expected default events over the expected life of each mortgage loan and a forecast of home prices in different economic environments over a reasonable and supportable period. The increase in loss reserves for this portion of our book was low relative to its size due to the credit quality of these loans and because as of the date of adoption our current model forecasted home price growth.

The allowance for loan losses on the TDR book was already measured using an expected lifetime credit loss estimate. The credit losses on this portion of our single-family book decreased upon the adoption of the CECL standard because the new guidance required us to exclude from our estimate of credit losses all pre-foreclosure and post-foreclosure costs that are expected to be advanced after the balance sheet date. Prior to the adoption of the CECL standard, we incorporated these costs in our estimate of credit losses for this book.

Impacts on Key Balance Sheet Line Items upon Implementation of the CECL Standard

The following table discloses the impact of adopting the CECL standard on key balance sheet line items.

	Balance as of December 31, 2019		Transition Impact of Adoption of the CECL Standard		Balance as of January 1, 2020
	(Dollars in millions)
Mortgage loans held for sale	$	6,773	$	50	$	6,823
Allowance for loan losses	(9,016)		(1,722)		(10,738)
Other assets(1)	14,312		230		14,542
Deferred tax assets, net	11,910		303		12,213
Accumulated deficit (beginning retained earnings)	(118,776)		(1,139)		(119,915)

⁽¹⁾Transition adjustment primarily represents the reclassification and recognition of freestanding credit enhancements not contractually attached to the loan.

For a discussion of the current period measurement of our allowance for loan losses under the CECL standard, including the expected impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, see “Note 4, Allowance for Loan Losses.”

Reference Rate Reform

In March 2020, the FASB issued ASU 2020-04, Reference Rate Reform (Topic 848): Facilitation of the Effects of Reference Rate Reform on Financial Reporting (“ASU 2020-04”), which provides optional temporary relief to ease the potential burden of transitioning away from LIBOR and other discontinued interest rates. Specifically, ASU 2020-04 provides optional practical expedients and exceptions under GAAP related to contract modifications and hedging relationships that reference LIBOR or another reference rate expected to be discontinued. Qualifying for the accounting relief provided by ASU 2020-04 is subject to meeting certain criteria and is generally only available to contract modifications made and hedging relationships entered into or evaluated prospectively from March 12, 2020 through December 31, 2022.

In May 2020, we modified trust agreements governing our Fannie Mae REMIC and other multi-class transactions issued prior to July 2013 that are backed by floating rate or reverse floating rate securities to include fallback provisions in order to ease the potential burden of transitioning away from LIBOR. The update to the fallback language in the Omnibus Trust Supplement qualified for the accounting relief provided by ASU 2020-04, and we accounted for the update as a modification to the existing agreements. The impact of the May 2020 agreement modifications governing Fannie Mae REMIC and multi-class transactions issued prior to July 2013 was not material to Fannie Mae. We had no hedge accounting relationships between March 12, 2020 and June 30, 2020. We will continue to evaluate ASU 2020-04 to determine the timing and extent to which we will apply the provided accounting relief.

Pursuant to the CARES Act, for purposes of reporting to the credit bureaus, servicers must report a borrower receiving a COVID-19-related payment accommodation, such as a forbearance plan or loan modification, as current if the borrower was current prior to receiving the accommodation and the borrower makes all required payments in accordance with the accommodation. For purposes of our disclosures regarding delinquency status, we report loans receiving COVID-19-related payment forbearance as delinquent according to the contractual terms of the loan.

Impaired Financing Receivable, Policy

Single-Family Loans

We estimate the amount expected to be collected on our single-family loans using a discounted cash flow approach. Our allowance for loan losses is calculated as the difference between the amortized cost basis of the loan and the present value of expected cash flows on the loan. Expected cash flows include payments from the borrower, net of servicing fees, contractually attached credit enhancements and proceeds from the sale of the underlying collateral, net of selling costs.

When foreclosure of a single-family loan is probable, the allowance for loan losses is calculated as the difference between the amortized cost basis of the loan and the fair value of the collateral as of the reporting date, adjusted for the estimated costs to sell the property and the amount of expected recoveries from contractually attached credit enhancements or other proceeds we expect to receive.

Expected cash flows are developed using internal models that capture market and loan characteristic inputs. Market inputs include information such as actual and forecasted home prices, interest rates, volatility, and spreads, while loan characteristic inputs include information such as mark-to-market loan-to-value (“LTV”) ratios, delinquency status, geography, and borrower FICO credit scores. The model assigns a probability to borrower events including contractual payment, loan payoff and default under various economic environments based on historical data, current conditions, and reasonable and supportable forecasts.

The two primary drivers of our forecasted economic environments are interest rates and home prices. Our model projects the range of possible interest rate scenarios over the life of the loan based on actual interest rates and observed option pricing volatility in the capital markets. We develop regional forecasts based on Metropolitan Statistical Area data for single-family home prices using a multi-path simulation that captures home price projections over a five-year period, the period for which we can develop reasonable and supportable forecasts. After the five-year period, the home price forecast immediately reverts to a historical long-term growth rate.

Expected cash flows on the loan are discounted at the effective interest rate on the loan, adjusted for expected prepayments. For single-family loans that have not been modified in a troubled debt restructuring (“TDR”), the discount rate is updated each reporting period to reflect changes in expected prepayments. Expected cash flows do not include expected extensions of the contractual term unless such extension is the result of a reasonably expected TDR.

We consider the effects of actual and reasonably expected TDRs in our estimate of credit losses. These effects include any economic concession provided or expected to be provided to a borrower experiencing financial difficulty. We consider our current servicing practices and our historical experience to estimate reasonably expected TDRs. When a loan is contractually modified in a TDR, to capture the concession, the discount rate on the loan is locked to the rate in effect just prior to the modification and is no longer updated for changes in expected prepayments.

Multifamily Loans

Our allowance for loan losses on multifamily loans is calculated based on estimated probabilities of default and loss severities to derive expected loss ratios, which are then applied to the amortized cost basis of the loans. Our probabilities of default and severity are estimated using internal models based on historical loss experience of loans with similar risk characteristics that affect credit performance, such as debt service coverage ratio (“DSCR”), mark-to-market LTV ratio, collateral type, age, loan size, geography, prepayment penalty term, and note type. Our models simulate a range of possible future economic scenarios, which are used to estimate probabilities of default and loss severities. Key inputs to our models include rental income, which drives expected DSCRs for our loans, and capitalization rates, which project future property values. Our reasonable and supportable forecasts for multifamily rental income and capitalization rates, which are projected based on Metropolitan Statistical Area data, extend through the contractual maturity of the loans. For TDRs, we use a discounted cash flow approach to estimate expected credit losses.

When foreclosure of a multifamily loan is probable, the allowance for loan losses is calculated as the difference between the amortized cost basis of the loan and the fair value of the collateral as of the reporting date, adjusted for the estimated costs to sell the property and the amount of expected recoveries from contractually attached credit enhancements or other proceeds we expect to receive.Prior to the adoption of the CECL standard, we recorded a specific loss reserve for individually impaired loans and a collective loss reserve for all other loans. Individually impaired loans include TDRs, acquired credit-impaired loans and multifamily loans that we have assessed as probable that we will not collect all contractual amounts due, regardless of whether we are currently accruing interest, excluding loans classified as HFS and loans for which we have elected the fair value option.