FAQs: Servicer Total Achievement and Rewards

The STAR Program is a performance management and recognition program based on a consistently applied framework to clearly define industry standards and leading practices.

Servicer inclusion is based on loan volumes from the following three categories:

• Strategic: Total loan count equal to or greater than 450,000
• Premier: Total loan count equal to or greater than 130,000 and less than 450,000.
• Select: Total loan count equal to or greater than 40,000 and less than 130,000. 

Servicers are measured based on all loans they service. Servicers participating in the program are notified of their participation level annually, prior to the start of the program year or on an as-needed basis. When added or removed during the STAR Program year, servicers are notified via communication and through their Fannie Mae Servicer Engagement team.

The 2026 updates to the metrics are effective January 1, 2026, and are reflected in the STAR Scorecard released in February 2026.

No, servicers meeting the inclusion criteria as of January 1, 2026, will remain in that peer group of inclusion throughout 2026, even if the acting servicer volume changes during the year. For example, a servicer could be included in the Strategic Peer Group as of January 1, 2026, but if the servicer’s minimum portfolio volume falls below the criteria threshold of the Strategic category, no change will be made to the peer group of inclusion for 2026.

The STAR team selects servicers based on criteria that identifies servicers who manage higher levels of credit risk for Fannie Mae due to their total portfolio size.

Fannie Mae greatly appreciates servicer interest in the STAR Program; however, Fannie Mae does not accept servicer solicitations for inclusion. Based on trends in Fannie Mae servicing volumes, servicers may be added or removed from the STAR Program at Fannie Mae’s discretion.

Fannie Mae recognizes servicers that are achieving the outcomes measured by the STAR Program. Servicers may be recognized as a STAR Performer by tier (Strategic, Premier and Select). STAR Performer recognition is determined annually based on an analysis of performance trends at the end of each program year.

To be recognized, a servicer must be among the top three performers in their peer group.

Servicers who have questions about the STAR Program should contact the Single-Family Market Engagement (SFME) team. If additional information or clarification regarding a matter related to the STAR Program is required, you may submit inquiries to the Fannie Mae STAR mailbox.

The STAR team makes every effort to respond within five business days.

The STAR Scorecard is designed to help our servicers quickly identify opportunities for improvement by comparing a servicer’s performance relative to other servicers based on set thresholds or relative to a comparable portfolio. Overall, the Scorecard metrics monitor progress and trends against key indicators selected to reflect Fannie Mae’s current business objectives. These objectives are weighted by their current strategic importance to Fannie Mae.

As with all STAR Scorecard information, STAR Scorecard results are confidential, and a servicer may not disclose STAR Scorecard results to any third parties by any means. STAR recognition, however, may be shared.  Fannie Mae provides a marketing package to support release.

For 2026, we’ve refined the STAR Scorecard to give you clearer performance insights. You’ll notice a greater focus on credit risk metrics and a simplified supplemental dataset, designed to help you make smarter decisions that drive real impact. The specific changes include the following:

• Investor Reporting primary metrics have moved to supplemental metrics.
• 10 supplemental metrics have been removed from the Scorecard.
• Two new disaster metrics have been added as supplemental.
  • Disaster Forbearance Take-up Rate
  • Disaster 30+ to Cure
• Servicers will not receive a score in metrics with fewer than 30 loans in the denominator.
• To differentiate from 60+ to Cure metric, the Retention Efficiency metric will exclude self-cures or full payoffs.
  • Credit will be given for initiating a Repayment Plan.
  • Loans in an active repayment plan as of the base month will be excluded.
• For 60+ to Cure metric, loans in an active repayment plan as of the base month will be excluded.
• Metrics for Strategic and Premier servicers will be weighted as follows:
  • Transition to 60+: 30%
  • 60+ to Cure: 25%
  • Retention Efficiency: 15%
  • 6-Month Mod Performance: 10%
  • 6-Month Payment Deferral Performance: 10%
  • Transition to Beyond Timeframe: 10%
• Metrics for Select servicers will be weighted as follows:
  • Transition to 60+: 45%
  • 60+ to Cure: 40%
  • Retention Efficiency: 15%

The updates are effective January 1, 2026, and they are reflected in the Scorecard released in February 2026. The report will only include results from January 2026 forward.

Please refer to Credit Metric Details in the 2026 STAR Program Guide for details on the credit performance metrics.

The STAR Scorecard has been updated with a new, streamlined design. It will continue to be published in Fannie Mae Connect.

Overall rankings in peer groups will be released beginning in April for Q1. Until April only metric rankings are available. 

The STAR Scorecard uses a conditional inference tree model, Decision Trees, to segment the loan attributes and create the Comp for each metric based on the historical performance of the Fannie Mae book of business. To do this, Fannie Mae leverages a publicly available recursive partitioning algorithm to choose the loan characteristics that most significantly differentiate performance for each segment of loans. Please refer to the 2026 STAR Program Guide.

Decision Trees are used to build a Comp for each credit performance metric in the STAR Scorecard. The Decision Trees identify the most relevant control variables for each metric which allows the final metric tree to evaluate many variables with fewer buckets and terminal nodes. Please refer to the 2026 STAR Program Guide.

Yes, the Decision Trees are based on the historical performance of the Fannie Mae book of business.

Fannie Mae provides two versions of the Scorecard (where applicable) for each servicer at both the Master and Acting level. The Master Servicing view provides performance metrics for all loans where that servicer owns the Mortgage Servicing Rights (MSRs), regardless of whether a sub-servicer is employed. The Acting Servicing view provides performance metrics for all loans where the servicer is responsible for servicing activities, regardless of whether they own the MSRs on those loans or are the sub-servicer. For servicers that do not engage in subservicing, these loan populations will be the same.

Depending on the metric, Fannie Mae considers either Origination Loan to Value (LTV) or Mark to Market LTV (MTM) LTV. The MTMLTV values are based on the loan’s current principal balance divided by the lesser of the sales price or appraised value at origination marked forward based on Fannie Mae’s Home Price Index.

The Transition to Beyond Timeline metric measures the number of loans that are within 180 days of the state foreclosure time frame that transition to beyond time frame status over a six-month reporting period. Please refer to the 2026 STAR Program Guide.

Loans are excluded from the transferor’s metrics in the month the transfer occurs. Transferred loans are excluded for the transferee for a two-month period following the transfer date for all metrics except six-month Mod and Payment Deferral Performance, which is not factored into the metric calculation.
 

The Servicing Compliance Review, formerly known as a STAR Operational Assessment, is an evaluation of a servicer’s results in accordance with the Fannie Mae Servicing Guide requirements.

Compliance review inclusion is conducted separately from STAR servicer selection.  Its risk-based inclusion criteria may result in less frequent and limited scope reviews. Based on Fannie Mae volume and the servicer profile, reviews may be conducted every two years taking into consideration past results and remediation status. Servicers outside of the STAR Program may also be selected to participate in a compliance review.

Yes, General Servicing, Solution Delivery and Timeline Management are still process categories used in Servicing Compliance Reviews and as part of performance discussions.  However, with the streamlining of STAR metrics, these categories are not used in conjunction with the STAR Scorecard.

The Servicing Final Report is shareable with certain business entities upon signing a disclosure by both parties – the servicer and the entity receiving the report. Please send your request to your Fannie Mae Servicing Manager and, upon completion, the approval will be released to the servicer.