IMS Expedites Loan Modification Process

""Integrated Mortgage Solution"":http://www.imstoday.net/site/Home/Main.aspx, a Houston-based provider of collateral protection resources for the mortgage servicing sector, recently announced its electronic document retrieval and indexing capabilities, which the company says will help servicers increase permanent loan modifications.

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""As DSNews.com reported"":http://dsnews.comarticles/servicers-double-permanent-hamp-mods-2010-02-17, the Treasury's January report card showed 116,297 homeowners were in permanent loan modifications at the end of January, and another 76,482 were extended offers for permanent restructuring. While this is notable improvement from the previous month, the Treasury estimates that there are still 5.6 million homeowners who are currently 60 days past due on their payments, and about 1.7 million of these are eligible for assistance through HAMP.

The time lapse between determining borrower eligibility and when a borrower sends in the corresponding documents has been to blame for much of the delay associated with converting trial modifications into permanents ones. However, according to new guidelines

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issued by the Treasury for loan modifications made on or after June 1, servicers are required to receive a request for modification and affidavit (RMA) form, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) 4506T-EZ form, and two recent pay stubs from the borrower before beginning HAMP proceedings.

To accelerate the loan modification process, IMS will collect the necessary loan documents from the borrower and then deliver those documents to the servicer electronically. Once IMS receives the documents, they will be uploaded into the ADAPT system, and quality control will be performed prior to the documents being sent to the servicer. In addition, the company's proprietary ADAPT system enables it to retrieve and index documents electronically, which will streamline the process and eliminate the potential loss associated with paper loan documents.

""Servicers today are being tasked with managing an enormous workload,"" said Cheryl Lang, president and CEO of IMS. ""IMS strives to provide services that help both borrowers and servicers. By offering electronic document retrieval and indexing, we are assisting borrowers by delivering their necessary loan documents in a timely fashion, and we are enabling servicers to meet the requirements of HAMP by completing more permanent loan modifications.""

Through its new offering, IMS hopes to help servicers complete more permanent loan modifications in the near future. This, the company said, is possible by adopting a philosophy that specifically focuses on the collection of HAMP documents as opposed to other loss mitigation efforts.