HUD streamlining loan review process

The Housing and Urban Development Department will automate a component of its home loan business process in a pilot starting in October.Lenders will be able to electronically submit their mortgage loans to HUD for review for Federal Housing Administration insurance, department CIO Lisa Schlosser said today at an industry event sponsored by Input of Reston, Va.The Electronic Case Binder should make the loan endorsement process easier and quicker for HUD’s participating lenders in a mostly paper process, she said. HUD insures loans by lenders under FHA to increase homeownership.The pilot is expected to last three months. “We will work out any process improvements and then expand it,” Schlosser said.HUD intends to streamline more aspects of its business processes related to home loans, such as lenders’ requests for previously submitted loan documents. For example, HUD will reduce the number of steps for HUD staff to retrieve loan documents from 12 to four and cut the cost to HUD from $51.60 to $12.80 for each request, she said.A mortgage loan can consist of more than 100 pages in documentation by the time a buyer closes on the purchase. The housing agency plans to implement an electronic document management system, but Schlosser did not give a time frame.