Independent reverse mortgage originators are finding new Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System (NMLS) quarterly mortgage call report (MCR) requirements to be cumbersome and time consuming at a time when they are already adapting to new loan officer compensation changes and large bank exits. While origination systems have continued efforts to assist in the new data collection and reporting, those systems do not reach all brokers.
The change to quarterly reporting came after the first quarter of 2011, following a slight delay in implementation, and some brokers say that first round of data collection took far longer than they previously spent on annual reporting requirements formerly submitted to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The reports are now due 45 days after each quarter ends.
“We have to prepare these for every state we originate on a quarterly basis,” says Lance Jackson of Castle Financial, of the new reports. “They’re collecting so much data on every loan we fund, we have to slice and dice our beginning and ending pipelines, new applications take, and funded loans a multitude of ways. They’re also asking for detailed financial information, including a cash flow schedule.”
For all originators, the new requirements mean quarterly reports that include the number of applications and closed loans they have on their books, with a state-by-state breakdown. A second requirement is an annual financial report. For GNMA issuers, that financial report is also required quarterly.
The new time expense is falling on brokers that have already faced numerous changes to their businesses this year, they say.
“It is a great deal of work,” says Jack Belles of Reverse Mortgage of New England. “It is painstakingly long and involved.”
Belles says his operation has set up a system in-house to track the necessary information so that when subsequent quarterly reports are due, the data will be easier to compile.
“The first go-round was painfully long and involved,” he says.
Mortgage origination software providers have built a solution into their software to assist the lenders and brokers they work with, but not all lenders work with those systems, and not all brokers are aware that the option is available.
“What we’ve done is built it in for the brokers who use Reverse Vision so they get the report with one click,” says Thomas Martignoni, CEO of Reverse Vision. “Instead of spending days getting the data together, it’s the click of a button,” he says.
Similarly, Mortgage Cadence, provider of Mortgage Cadence Orchestrator and Mortgage Cadence Symphony, offers a solution as well. Both systems are capable of easily generating NMLS call reports, says Sarah Volling, marketing manager for the company.
“A report design tool called Active Reports provides lenders with complete access to select filters, sort criteria and report data and format when reporting on NMLS call reports,” she says.
The report data can be exported in multiple formats and can be generated and automatically distributed on a scheduled basis, or spur of the moment.
For those not using the software available, the process still adds many hours for brokers and small origination shops.
“My guess is most brokers in the past just did their accounting at the end,” says Jackson. “Now brokers have to stay up on their accounting.”
Written by Elizabeth Ecker
