Visualize Presumption-of-Compliance Metrics Across Mortgage Pipelines in Power BI

Fannie Mae Updated QM Delivery Edits in January 2026. Are Your Dashboards Keeping Up?

Fannie Mae updated its Qualified Mortgage delivery edits on January 5, 2026, adding tighter validation on APR-to-APOR spreads, points-and-fees thresholds, and UCD data accuracy. Loans that fail these edits cannot be delivered. For lenders tracking QM status in spreadsheets, that means finding out a loan is non-deliverable after it has already funded.

Power BI changes that equation. By pulling loan origination data into real-time dashboards, compliance teams can flag QM threshold violations before loans close. With the 2026 HOEPA triggers, points-and-fees caps, and APR spreads all updated for the new year, manual tracking is no longer viable at scale.

This guide walks through four Power BI dashboard templates built for presumption-of-compliance tracking, with practical setup steps your team can implement this quarter.

What Is Presumption of Compliance?

Presumption of compliance protects mortgage lenders from ability-to-repay (ATR) lawsuits when a loan meets Qualified Mortgage (QM) standards. There are two levels of protection:

• Safe harbor. Loans priced at or below the APR-to-APOR threshold receive conclusive presumption of compliance. The borrower cannot challenge the lender's ATR determination.
• Rebuttable presumption. Higher-priced QM loans receive weaker protection. The borrower can challenge the ATR determination, and the lender must prove compliance through documentation.

The QM criteria that drive this determination include:

• Debt-to-income ratio: Total monthly debt compared to gross income.
• Points and fees: Must fall below the threshold for the loan amount. The 2026 caps have been updated.
• Loan term: Cannot exceed 30 years.
• No risky features: No negative amortization, interest-only payments, or balloon features on standard QMs.
• Income and asset verification: Fully documented and verified through reliable third-party sources.

Every loan your company originates should be assessed against these criteria before closing. Power BI makes that assessment visible, automated, and auditable.

Why Power BI for Compliance Tracking

Spreadsheets break down when you are originating 50+ loans per month. Formulas get overwritten. Versions conflict. Nobody trusts the numbers during crunch time. Power BI solves these problems.

What Power BI Brings to Compliance

• Live data connections. Pull loan data directly from your LOS, Excel exports, or SQL databases. No manual copy-paste between systems.
• Automated calculations. APR-to-APOR spreads, points-and-fees percentages, and DTI ratios compute in real time as loan data updates.
• Visual risk identification. Color-coded dashboards surface loans approaching or exceeding QM thresholds before they close.
• Scheduled refreshes. Set dashboards to update hourly or daily. Compliance teams see current data without running manual reports.
• Role-based access. Underwriters see their pipeline. Compliance officers see the full picture. Branch managers see their branch. Same data, filtered by role.

Power BI is already included in Microsoft 365 Business Premium and E5 licenses. The tool is available. The question is whether your compliance team is using it.

Template 1: Qualified Mortgage Checklist Dashboard

This dashboard provides a real-time snapshot of every loan's QM status across your pipeline.

Dashboard Components

• Donut chart: Shows the percentage of loans categorized as safe harbor, rebuttable presumption, and non-QM. Gives leadership a one-glance risk view.
• Bar graph: Compares points-and-fees against the threshold for each loan amount tier. Loans approaching the cap are highlighted in yellow. Those exceeding it appear in red.
• Scatter plot: Maps APR-to-APOR spread against loan amount. Cluster analysis reveals pricing patterns that may warrant underwriting review.
• Data grid: Lists each loan with pass/fail icons for every QM criterion. Drill into any loan to see the specific data driving the assessment.
• Trend line: Tracks QM compliance rate over time. A declining trend signals process issues before they become systemic.

Template 2: DTI and Pricing Risk Monitor

This dashboard focuses on the two metrics that cause the most QM failures: DTI ratio and pricing thresholds.

Dashboard Components

• DTI distribution histogram: Shows where your pipeline clusters relative to the general QM threshold. Loans above 43% DTI under the general QM definition need alternative QM qualification or non-QM treatment.
• Pricing heat map: Visualizes APR spread across loan types, terms, and branches. Identifies which products or branches produce higher-priced loans that receive only rebuttable presumption.
• Alert panel: Flags loans where DTI exceeds 40% or pricing spread approaches the higher-priced threshold. Gives underwriters time to restructure before closing.
• Branch comparison: Side-by-side DTI and pricing distributions by branch. Reveals whether specific offices consistently produce riskier loan profiles.

Template 3: Pipeline Stage Compliance Tracker

This dashboard tracks compliance health across origination, underwriting, and closing stages.

Dashboard Components

• Funnel visualization: Shows how many loans pass QM checks at each pipeline stage. A narrowing funnel reveals where compliance issues concentrate.
• SLA tracker: Monitors time from application to QM assessment completion. Delays in compliance review can bottleneck the pipeline.
• Condition clearance grid: Tracks open QM-related conditions by loan. Conditions like missing income verification or unresolved DTI calculations appear with age indicators.
• Stage-over-stage comparison: Compares this month's stage-level compliance to the previous month. Trends reveal whether process improvements are working.

Template 4: Audit-Ready Evidence Report

This report template generates examiner-ready documentation for individual loans or portfolio segments.

Report Components

• Loan-level QM summary: One-page view showing every QM criterion with pass/fail status, supporting data, and source documentation references.
• Portfolio compliance snapshot: Aggregate statistics showing QM compliance rates by product type, branch, loan officer, and time period.
• Exception log: Documents every loan that required QM remediation, the issue found, the corrective action taken, and the resulting QM status.
• Export capability: PDF and Excel exports formatted for examiner review. Include data sources, calculation methodology, and timestamp of report generation.

Implementation Steps

Step 1: Connect your data source. Power BI supports direct connections to Encompass, Byte, Calyx, and most LOS platforms through ODBC, API, or Excel export. Start with the data you have, even if it is a weekly Excel export.

Step 2: Build with sample data first. Use anonymized loan data to build and test your dashboards. Validate calculations against known QM outcomes before connecting live data.

Step 3: Involve your compliance team early. Compliance officers know what examiners ask for. Build dashboards that answer those questions directly.

Step 4: Set up automated refresh. Schedule data refreshes to match your pipeline velocity. High-volume shops need hourly refreshes. Smaller operations can use daily.

Step 5: Publish to Power BI Service. Deploy dashboards to your Power BI workspace so compliance teams, underwriters, and managers can access them from any device. Apply row-level security to restrict views by role.

Step 6: Update thresholds annually. Every January, update your dashboard parameters with the new year's HOEPA triggers, points-and-fees caps, APR-to-APOR spreads, and asset-size exemption thresholds. The 2026 updates are already in effect.

Frequently Asked Questions

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Build Your QM Compliance Dashboards

Spreadsheet-based QM tracking cannot keep pace with updated delivery requirements, annual threshold changes, and growing pipeline volumes. Power BI dashboards automate the calculations, surface the risks, and produce the evidence examiners expect.

Start with the QM Checklist Dashboard. Connect your LOS data. Publish to your compliance team. Then expand to the remaining templates as your practice matures.

Talk to a mortgage IT specialist about building Power BI compliance dashboards tailored to your lending operation.