Upgrade in URLA Indefinitely Postponed

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have indefinitely postponed their implementation of the redesigned Uniform Residential Loan Application (URLA) that was scheduled to take effect on Feb. 1, 2020.

 

In October 2017, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) added a preferred language question to the URLA, which the agency said would accommodate borrowers who self-identify as limited English proficient and are more comfortable communicating in another language. The FHFA stressed that this action is “in the interest of all segments of the mortgage market.”  No new date has been set before the URLA upgrade to go into effect.

 

Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) President and CEO Bob Broeksmit issued a statement welcoming the delay in the URLA upgrade.

 

"As you recall, MBA opposed the inclusion of the language preference question in the URLA because of the customer relations issues the question would cause if lenders could not actually serve borrowers in their preferred language, and due to unresolved operational and legal questions raised by the language preference information," Broeksmit said. "We greatly appreciate Director Mark Calabria's willingness to revisit these concerns and resolve them effectively. We look forward to working with FHFA to continue to find opportunities to extend homeownership to all creditworthy borrowers."

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