© 2018 Fannie Mae. Trademarks of Fannie Mae. 2.9.2018 1 of 6

Mortgage Lender Sentiment Survey® – Technical Notes

Fannie Mae has been conducting the Mortgage Lender Sentiment Survey (MLSS), a quarterly 

online survey of lenders analyzing their current activities and market expectations, since the 

first quarter of 2014. Survey questions cover changes in and expectations for consumer 

mortgage demand, lenders’ credit standards, post-mortgage origination execution strategy, 

mortgage servicing rights execution, and profit margin outlook. Each quarter’s questionnaire

also includes a special topic section that explores industry challenges, opportunities, and 

emerging topics. With these findings, mortgage and housing professionals are able to better 

understand industry trends and assess their own business practices. 

Sample Information

The MLSS sample is comprised of Fannie Mae lender partners’ senior executives, such as 

CEOs and CFOs, who have opted to take the survey. Lenders are classified by size, based 

on their loan origination volumes (larger, mid-sized, and smaller), and by type (depository 

institutions, credit unions, and mortgage banks). Each quarter, approximately 3,000 senior 

executives are selected to participate in the survey. The sample is designed to be split as 

evenly as possible across the groups classified by lender size. To ensure as many lenders

are invited to participate from each group as possible, one senior executive is randomly 

selected from each lender within each size group of lenders before a second executive from 

that lender is selected.

Invitations

The executives who are selected receive an email from Fannie Mae with a unique survey 

URL to participate in the study. Survey participation is voluntary. While the survey is open, 

reminder emails are sent to executives who were invited to participate but have not completed

the survey yet. Typically, three waves of reminder emails are sent to obtain the desired 

minimum of 200 respondents, which allows for analysis across all lender sizes and lender 

types. 
© 2018 Fannie Mae. Trademarks of Fannie Mae. 2.9.2018 2 of 6

Data Collection

The MLSS opens on the first Wednesday of the month in February (Q1), May (Q2), August 

(Q3), and November (Q4). Once the survey is open, responses are accepted for 

approximately 12 calendar days. 

PSB Research manages the survey fieldwork to ensure all responses remain anonymous and 

cannot be linked back to individual people or institutions. Because the survey is online, all 

respondents are able to take it at their leisure with the option of stopping before it has been 

completed and returning to it later where they previously left off.

Weighting

Independent weighting schemes are used for the total, lender size, and lender type results.

Total and Lender Size Weighting Scheme 

In the Total and Lender Size Weighting Scheme, each lender size group (larger, mid-sized, 

and smaller) is weighted equally within the overall sample, and each lending institution is 

weighted equally within their respective lender size group. There is no lender type weighting 

in this scheme.

The final sample composition of each wave of the MLSS usually includes a greater number of

smaller institutions than larger institutions due to their greater number. If all institutions had an 

equal weight, reporting on all institutions as a whole (referred to as ‘total’ in reporting) would

reflect the opinions and attitudes of smaller institutions more than they represent in the actual 

market. This would be problematic since larger institutions represent a larger percentage of 

the market share for mortgage lending. To help account for this, larger, mid-sized, and 

smaller institutions are weighted equally, as three separate groups, at 1/3 each in the total.

Within each size group, each institution is weighted equally regardless of the number of 

responses from an individual institution. If two executives from the same institution respond to 

the survey, they are both weighted so that their responses represent a single institutional 

respondent within their group. If an institution only has one respondent, it is only weighted 

according to the overall lender size group distribution of institutions.

Data points from Total, Larger Institutions, Mid-sized Institutions, and Smaller Institutions are

reported using the Total and Lender Size Weighting Scheme.
© 2018 Fannie Mae. Trademarks of Fannie Mae. 2.9.2018 3 of 6

An example of the Total and Lender Size Weighting Scheme is laid out below:

Group Weights Institution Weights Respondent Weights

Larger Institutions 33.33% Institution 1 50% Respondent 1 50%

 Respondent 2 50%

Institution 2 50% Respondent 3 100%

Mid-sized Institutions 33.33%

Institution 3 33% Respondent 4 100%

Institution 4 33% Respondent 5 100%

Institution 5 33% Respondent 6 100%

Smaller Institutions 33.33%

Institution 6 20% Respondent 7 100%

Institution 7 20% Respondent 8 100%

Institution 8 20% Respondent 9 100%

Institution 9 20% Respondent 10 100%

Institution 10 20% Respondent 11 100%

Lender Type Weighting Scheme

The MLSS also reports data by institution type (mortgage banks, depository institutions, and 

credit unions). In the Lender Type Weighting Scheme, each lending institution is weighted 

equally.

Since lenders of all sizes are included within each group of institution type, results by type 

cannot be reported using the Total and Lender Size Weighting Scheme where they would 

not accurately represent the opinions of each type of lender due to uneven weighting by size.

In the Lender Type Weighting Scheme, all institutions are weighted equally. If multiple 

executives from the same institution respond, each response is weighted equally so that 

together they represent a single case.

Data points from Mortgage Banks, Depository Institutions, and Credit Unions are reported 

using the Lender Type Weighting Scheme. 
© 2018 Fannie Mae. Trademarks of Fannie Mae. 2.9.2018 4 of 6

An example of the Lender Type Weighting Scheme is laid out below:

Institution Type Institution Weights Respondent Weights

Mortgage Bank Institution 1 10% Respondent 1 50%

Respondent 2 50%

Depository Institution Institution 2 10%

Respondent 3 33%

Respondent 4 33%

Respondent 5 33%

Depository Institution Institution 3 10% Respondent 6 100%

Credit Union Institution 4 10% Respondent 7 100%

Mortgage Bank Institution 5 10% Respondent 8 100%

Mortgage Bank Institution 6 10% Respondent 9 100%

Credit Union Institution 7 10% Respondent 10 100%

Credit Union Institution 8 10% Respondent 11 100%

Credit Union Institution 9 10% Respondent 12 100%

Mortgage Bank Institution 10 10% Respondent 13 100%

Statistical Significance Testing

In every wave of the MLSS, data is tested for statistically significant differences against data

from both the previous quarter and the same quarter of the previous year. Statistical 

significance is evaluated using the two-proportion z-score test and reported at the 95% 

confidence level. The two-proportion z-score is used to determine whether the results from 

two different groups (e.g., this quarter vs. last quarter, larger vs. mid-sized institutions in the 

same quarter) to a single survey question on some categorical characteristic are significantly 

different.

In the example below, the percentage of respondents who think “competition from other 

lenders” will drive their firm’s profit margin down is significantly higher in Q2 2017 (71%) than 

it was the previous year in Q2 2016 (44%). Furthermore, the share who said “market trend 

changes” will drive their firm’s profit margin down is significantly lower in Q2 2017 (26%) than 

it was in the previous quarter of Q1 2017 (51%). In both cases, the z-scores exceed 1.96, 

indicating that the results are statistically significantly different from the previous year and the 

previous quarter respectively at the 95% confidence level.
© 2018 Fannie Mae. Trademarks of Fannie Mae. 2.9.2018 5 of 6

When survey data is shown as a net score from one question, Net Promoter Score (NPS)1,2

Testing is used to determine statistical significance at the 95% confidence level. NPS testing 

takes the quantities of respondents for positive, neutral, and negative responses of two 

samples for a given question and compares the two samples’ net margins of error for overlap.

In the below example, the net share of lenders who say their demand for government 

refinance mortgages has gone up over the past three months is significantly lower in Q2 2017 

(-66%) than in both the previous quarter of Q1 2017 (-53%) and the previous year of Q2 2016 

(17%). The margin of error around the Q2 2017 net score did not overlap with the margin of 

error surrounding either the Q1 2017 or the Q2 2016 net score, indicating that it is significantly 

different from both of the two earlier quarters.

 1 Bain & Company: Net Promoter System - Net Promoter System Home - Bain & Company. Web. 

<http://www.netpromotersystem.com/>

2 Brendan Rocks, "Interval Estimation for the “Net Promoter Score,” The American Statistician 70.4 (2016): 365-72.
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