The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA), the nation's largest banking trade organization, and Freddie Mac have signed an extension of their five-year-old alliance agreement, which gives ICBA member banks superior access to the secondary mortgage market through Freddie Mac, plus a comprehensive suite of products and services designed to help them through today's mortgage market.
The alliance provides ICBA members with incentives, technology, training resources and competitive mortgage products to assist in sales of mortgages to Freddie Mac. These advantages, when combined with standard Freddie Mac offerings, provide ICBA members a more robust set of options that will help community banks compete successfully for mortgage volume, says Freddie Mac.
Key alliance features include technology advantages using Freddie Mac's Loan Prospector automated underwriting service and a Mortgagebot with Loan Prospector business-to-consumer Web site for online mortgage lending; secondary market sale advantages, with cash executions customized to meet individual business needs; increased access to capital markets and portfolio management experts; and guaranteed rural housing loan products that help bankers reach more borrowers in rural communities.