Fiserv Servicing Platform Meets Making Home Affordable Requirements

""Fiserv, Inc."":http://www.fiserv.com, the financial services technology provider based in Brookfield, Wisconsin, announced Wednesday that its loan servicing platform, with loan modification and loss mitigation features, is fully compatible with the U.S. Treasury Department’s new guidelines for home loan modifications. According to Fiserv, from its inception the platform was the first loan servicing system that was fully capable of supporting the Making Home Affordable Modification program.
As part of the Obama administration’s plan to provide Americans with mortgage relief, its government-supported loan modification program is designed to help as many as three to four million distressed homeowners avoid foreclosure by lowering their monthly mortgage payments. The program is effective for mortgages originated on or prior to January 1, 2009, and will expire on December 31, 2012, and according to Fiserv, it provides ""clear and consistent guidelines"" that the mortgage industry must follow.
The company’s loan servicing platform utilizes integrated default management tools that allow servicers to track and study the loans being modified. With this knowledge, Fiserv says, servicers can formulate best-option workout scenarios based on operational business rules, while closely adhering to the Making Home Affordable guidelines.
Greg Fontenot, assistant VP of loan servicing solutions at Fiserv, said, ""Fiserv has been fully engaged with the Treasury and GSEs in order to provide all the functionality to meet the program’s specific requirements. Our continual investment enabled our loan servicing platform to deliver the flexibility and capability required to meet the HMP [Home Affordable Modification Program] guidelines as soon as it was announced in March.""
Over the past 24 months, Fiserv says it has been focused on enhancing the loan modification and loss mitigation features of its loan servicing platform. The company explained that the platform has support built into the core system that helps servicers determine if a borrower is eligible for a federal modification.
Platform capabilities include built-in loss mitigation workflow tools to streamline operations and increase efficiency, GSE investor reporting, secure electronic delivery of documents, and full escrow analysis processing. In addition, Fiserv said several enhancements are already underway, including additional deferred principal functionality, enhanced ability to gather personal financial information, and a Making Home Affordable-specific screen to present servicers with a full picture of the modified loan.
Fontenot added, ""Maintaining a competitive position when working with distressed borrowers requires efficiency, flexibility, and accurate information delivered in real-time. Under HMP [Home Affordable Modification Program] guidelines, defaulted loans must be evaluated one loan at a time. The challenge for servicers is to maintain uniformity and consistency in the qualification process, even as volumes increase and workflow processes change. Fiserv’s technology has the ability to coordinate more parts, paper, and data sources and keep up with the revisions to the program.""