Nearly 3 years ago mortgage financing giants Frannie Mae and Freddie Mac announced that changes were coming on the standard mortgage application. These were to be the first changes made to the application in 20 years. As the process moved forward, the new Uniform Residential Loan Application was supposed to make its debut February 1, 2020. The government – sponsored enterprises decided additional changes were needed and extended the time frame for it’s mandatory use.
“The redesigned URLA is the result of extensive collaboration with industry stakeholders,” said Andrew Bon Salle, Fannie Mae executive vice president of single-family business.
“We are proud to be a part of this effort that enables lenders to better serve their customers by providing ease and clarity to borrowers during the loan origination process,” Bon Salle said.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency has requested more changes to the URLA form. At issue are questions relating to language preference, home ownership education and housing counseling. These questions have been moved to a voluntary form instead of being addressed on the main application. After revisiting these changes, additional changes are now being revised as well, including:
Redesigned format: Improved navigation and organization that will support accurate data collection and better efficiency for a more consumer-friendly experience.
New and updated fields: Capture loan application details that reflect today’s mortgage lending business and support both the GSEs’ and government requirements.
Clearer instructions: Simplified terminology enables borrowers to complete the loan application with less help from the lender.
Revised government monitoring information: Incorporates the revised Home Mortgage Disclosure Act demographic questions.
Spanish informational version: Will be available soon.
The new timeline for use is still unspecified as the changes will be assessed yet again to see what the impact will be to everyone involved. The timeline and new implementation dates will be released as soon as they are available until which time the new form is available, continuing the use of the current form is required.