Fannie Mae Ends Meridian Ban 

After a lengthy pause, Meridian Capital Group has been given the green light to immediately re-enter the Fannie Mae (FNMA) loan market. 

The brokerage firm announced late Friday that, effective immediately, Fannie Mae lenders are able to resume negotiations with Meridian-brokered loans. The announcement comes a year after Fannie Mae had halted deals placed by the firm with lenders in their networks.

Freddie Mac (FMCC) had also placed restrictions with Meridian-brokered loans in November 2023 when a loan it negotiated was called into question. That ban was lifted late last year. 

“Meridian has made investments in people, processes and technology to implement a risk-management and internal control environment that is best-in-class among commercial mortgage brokerages,” Brian Brooks, chairman and CEO of Meridian, said in a statement. “We appreciate Fannie Mae’s recognition of our commitment to continuous improvement in these areas and look forward to offering our clients a full suite of financing options, including agency execution.”

Brooks, a former acting controller of the currency and general counsel at Fannie Mae, replaced founding Meridian CEO Ralph Herzka as the brokerage firm’s leader in March 2024. 

Meridian then hired Melissa Martinez from CoreLogic in June 2024 as the company’s first chief risk officer in a move aimed at enhancing its compliance and risk-control procedures across all of its deals in CRE finance, investment sales and retail leasing.

In addition to adding Martinez, Meridian this past year appointed new independent board members in Andrew Bon Salle, a former Fannie Mae executive vice president, and Pat Jackson, CEO and chief investment officer of Sabal Investment Holdings.

Meridian said Friday it has created new underwriting procedures that involve a screening process for all brokeraged transactions to ensure compliance. It also established a management credit approval committee to review large loans and all Freddie Mac- and Fannie Mae-brokered deals prior to the financing stages. 

A quarterly loan review process was also established to improve compliance after transactions close. That process sets up possible actions if errors or violations are detected that could include suspension or termination.

“The process oversight we have put in place will give lenders confidence that Meridian transactions have been carefully reviewed in a process that is as robust as you would expect from a bank,” Martinez said in a statement. 

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are in a period of transition following President Donald Trump’s appointment of private equity veteran Bill Pulte as chair of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which is exploring privatizing the GSEs. 

Officials at Fannie Mae did not immediately return a request for comment. 

Andrew Coen can be reached at acoen@commercialobserver.com