Optimal Blue Mortgage Market Indices (OBMMI) Now Available via the Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) Platform

PLANO, Texas–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Optimal Blue, the leading provider of secondary marketing solutions and actionable data services in the mortgage industry, recently collaborated with the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis to enable the real-time distribution of Optimal Blue Mortgage Market Indices™ (OBMMI™) on the Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) platform. This addition of timely mortgage data is another step forward in Optimal Blue’s ongoing commitment to make its proprietary rate indices more easily accessible to a broader market segment.

FRED, created and maintained by the Research Department at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, is a free online database consisting of hundreds of thousands of economic data time series from scores of national, international, public, and private sources. The inclusion of granular and accurate indices that depict the daily movement of mortgage rates provides lenders, investors, researchers, and economists with an unprecedented level of daily insight into observed transaction activity, as well as greater visibility into key drivers of mortgage pricing. Together, Optimal Blue and FRED now provide a new and unique access point to this valuable data.

“As the only transaction-based set of mortgage rates available to the industry and beyond, OBMMI establishes transparency beyond what is offered by lenders to what is actually being locked by consumers across 35% of all mortgage transactions nationwide,” explained Rick Allen, Vice President of Business Transformation at Optimal Blue. “Our new collaboration with FRED enables Optimal Blue to deliver this near real-time visibility to even more recipients that are thoroughly invested in this data.”

OBMMI was created by Optimal Blue to provide mortgage and finance professionals and consumers alike with greater visibility into how key credit factors impact mortgage pricing. Based on actual locked rates, each of the sixteen mortgage rate indices are developed around the most popular mortgage loan products and the primary credit-related attributes that impact mortgage pricing. OBMMI can be compared through compelling, interactive, and configurable visualizations to provide an unprecedented level of daily insight into mortgage rate trends.

“Our signature economic database known as FRED provides our users around the globe with the economic data they need—anytime, anywhere they need it,” said Maria A. Arias, FRED Data Engineer at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Allen concluded, “We believe the addition of OBMMI as an economic data series on FRED will assist thousands of users to better understand mortgage rate movements and important dynamics across the evolving mortgage landscape.”

ABOUT OPTIMAL BLUE

Optimal Blue’s Marketplace Platform connects the industry’s largest network of originators, investors, and providers. Nearly $2 trillion of transactions are processed across the platform each year, facilitating a broad set of secondary market interactions like pricing, locking, hedging, and trading of mortgage loans. For more information, please visit www.optimalblue.com.

Contacts

PRESS CONTACT FOR THE FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF ST. LOUIS
Laura Taylor

(314) 313-4613

laura.taylor@stls.frb.org

PRESS CONTACT FOR OPTIMAL BLUE
Robert J. Brandt

Vice President, Marketing & Strategic Alliances

(469) 609-5585

bbrandt@optimalblue.com