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It’s hard to believe that the current Uniform Residential Loan Application (URLA) Form has not had any substantive changes in the past 20 years.
Despite numerous programmatic and policy changes implemented by the Federal Government’s Housing Agencies (i.e. HUD, VA & USDA) and the GSE’s, this form has served well as a uniform loan application form for the mortgage industry.
It is as familiar to loan officers, loan processors, underwriters, auditors, etc. as the IRS tax forms are to accountants. Any changes in the formatting or scope of information being requested on the URLA will certainly result in some “agita” (Italian for “heartburn”) for most mortgage industry personnel.
So, one must ask “why mess with success?” or “if it ain’t broken, why try to fix it”? In their December 8, 2015, News Release, Freddie Mac stated that:
“The URLA redesign effort is a component of the Uniform Mortgage Data Program (UMDP) and aligns with the UMDP’s focus on enhancing data quality, consistency, and clarity to strengthen the loan manufacturing process.”
Translation – the revised URLA form will establish a uniform dataset comprised of several additional fields that will enable the agencies & GSE’s to extract data about the property and loan transaction (including any new Home Mortgage Disclosure Act requirements) directly from the updated URLA.
Similar to the data that is currently being extracted from the Uniform Residential Appraisal Report (URAR), this data that will be directly extracted from the revised URLA will be more accurate (since it is the same data that is on the actual form thus eliminating any data entry/extraction errors made by humans) which will improve its overall usefulness.
Additional data fields such as borrower’s cell phone number(s), email addresses, loan amortization types and loan terms, more self-employment information, and more will reportedly be added to the URLA Form.
In addition, both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have indicated that they will be working closely with industry groups in the coming months to solicit comments on the URLA’s redesign.
Some folks in the industry are still experiencing difficulties in adjusting to the new Loan Estimate and Closing Disclosure forms which replaced the GFE & HUD-1 forms in October 2015 as part of the TRID initiative. Replacing these forms and now this new URLA form will just add to their list of concerns about adapting to the use of a redesigned form that must be used on all loan transactions.
Loading ...In my opinion, a revised URLA Form is long overdue and by mandating a standardized dataset, it will enhance efforts currently underway in the industry to fully automate loan processing, underwriting, QC and closing functions.
In this regard, LoanLogics’ comprehensive LoanHD platform provides a more efficient data-centric capability that integrates with the various services required to manage loan quality and performance analytics from pricing to pay-off.
For information on Loan HD, access the following website: www.loanlogics.com and click on “Product Introduction”.
