Reverse leaders call for industry-wide data collection effort

Industry leaders say reverse lenders need to collect data on borrowers who are falling through the cracks in order to help broaden the HECM credit box

Reverse mortgage industry leaders are calling for an industry-wide data collection effort to help broaden the pool of potential reverse borrowers.

According to a report in Reverse Mortgage Daily, industry leaders hope a data collection effort will help the reverse space figure out ways to broaden the credit box and help creditworthy applicants get approved. That’s especially important following last year’s implementation of the Financial Assessment, which was passed to reduce the 10% spike in HECM defaults but also eliminated about 20% of the pool of potential borrowers by tightening underwriting standards.

“It’s important that all of us collect data on all those who don’t get through, start drawing inferences of common characteristics, and start providing solutions to solve for,” Mike Kent, president of Liberty Home Equity Solutions, told Reverse Mortgage Daily. “It would be in our best interest to collect data and work with NRMLA to use that data to build policy positions we can present to HUD.”

That kind of data can directly influence HUD’s policy decisions for the HECM program, according to Reverse Mortgage Daily.

“HUD needs good data to make good, smart policy decisions,” Joe Demarkey of Reverse Mortgage Funding LLC told the site. “FHA makes changes all the time – it happens every year in our space – but it is data-driven decisions that are made.”
 
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