Search             Print this page     Email a friend

Standardization and Consolidation of Hold/Delay Reasons

by Michael Zevitz
South & Associates, P.C. - USFN Member (KS, MO)

The USFN Technology Committee has ratcheted up its efforts to create data standards for the plethora of hold/delay reasons that have proliferated attorney and servicer data reporting systems. A special subcommittee was tasked with finding ways to streamline and create efficiencies through industry standardization. When the project was started almost two years ago, the committee identified well over 600 different hold/delay reasons. 

The goal remains to create no more than 30 major “data classifications” in which to map the 600 hold/delay reasons. To achieve industry acceptance, it was decided that USFN, through its Technology Committee, would create, propagate, and maintain a set of data standards that would be recognized industry-wide. A formal proposal was drafted in February 2008 and presented to various industry representatives at each of the USFN seminars throughout 2008. 

Late last year, to garner further support, the subcommittee reached out to the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization (MISMO), a not-for-profit subsidiary of the Mortgage Bankers Association. MISMO is the leading technology standards development body for both the residential and commercial industry segments. It promotes data consistency throughout the broader industry, reduces processing costs, and increases transparency between data providers.

On January 28, 2009, the special subcommittee sent three representatives to Washington, D.C. to make a formal presentation to the recently revived Servicing Default Work Group. MISMO embraced the USFN initiative and agreed to put it on a fast track to determine how and when to incorporate it into the overall standardization schema. If the hold/delay reason proposal is ratified by MISMO, it would help to create an industry-wide standard that could be adopted by attorneys, servicers, and other third party data providers.  

MISMO’s review process is expected to be completed by late February. The special technology subcommittee will be prepared to make a full report at the next USFN Loan Management & Servicing Seminar in Orlando (March 18-20).

© Copyright 2009 USFN. All rights reserved.
February e-Update