April showers bring MERS flowers

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For MERS members, April brings the notification from MERS identifying the number of your MINS on the MERS® System, when the member is named as servicer as of March 31^st.

Here are some of the important numbers to remember. If your organization was identified as the servicer on less than 1000 MINS as of March 31st, you are required to reconcile your portfolio with the MERS system every quarter. If the number is 1000 or more, you must reconcile monthly.

In addition, you are then required to engage an independent 3^rd party to conduct the mandatory annual MERS quality assurance review.  The independent 3^rd party must also complete and submit the MERS eAnnual Report form by December 31^st of the calendar year.

If you must engage a 3^rd party reviewer, you should be confident that the vendor is committed to reviewing and testing all MERS processes, procedures, and transactions utilized by the member to meet the requirements outlined in the MERS eQA Plan and the MERS Procedures Manual.

The annual review process should incorporate an examination of your organization’s current MERS policies and procedures, the identification of any gaps or deficiencies that can be remedied prior to testing, and then a complete testing of the remediated procedures.  The review should also include an examination of all forms of recordable documents executed by the organization to ensure compliance with the standards for MERS verbiage.

A complete and thorough review takes planning and preparation.  The eAnnual report can be filed any time after MERS publishes the form for the current year.  So, if your organization is required to engage a 3^rd party reviewer, now is the time to start the process to avoid a year-end crunch.

I wouldn’t tell you this if I couldn’t help you with this. If you have some questions or need help with your review reach out to me and we can get you on the path to a successful MERS review.

About the Author

Gary Vandeventer

GARY VANDEVENTER has over 18 years of hands-on experience with the MERS® processes including participation in the original design of the MERS System. He is arguably the country’s pre-eminent expert on the policies and procedures within MERS. He is the Vice President, Loan Servicing Consulting at LoanLogics. Gary is a frequent panelist and speaker at industry conferences on the topic of MERS and its processes. Prior to joining LoanLogics, he held the position of Vice President, Product Division for MERSCORP Holdings, Inc. In that capacity, he oversaw the actions of the Membership, Integration, Quality Assurance & Training and Development departments.