mortgage bankers association (MBA) is highlighting the challenges and successes that the COVID-19 pandemic has created for hostage servicers in response to a series of reports published this week. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) office of the inspector general (OIG).
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!,[The] The OIG report confirms what we all know – the COVID-19 pandemic presented unprecedented challenges for homeowners, servicers and the federal agencies like HUD that administer loan guarantee programs,” MBA President and CEO Bob Brockschmidt said. “Since the pandemic began in March 2020, mortgage servicers have provided payment relief to nearly 8 million borrowers. Today, only about 255,000 borrowers are in forbearance, and delinquency rates are near historic lows.” Is.”
Broeksmit said the OIG report helps demonstrate the difficulties that HUD and servicers faced during the pandemic period, in large part due to the accelerated pace in which changes to the loss mitigation program had to be implemented.
“These difficulties are understandable in light of the challenges faced by both HUD and servicers in an unprecedented and rapidly changing environment,” he added. “Those difficulties magnified the challenges that servicers faced in implementing these new and evolved programs for a volume of borrowers never seen before.”
Brocksmit acknowledged that the report identifies several flaws in harm reduction programs, but the findings should be considered in context related to the COVID-19 emergency, he said.
“Many of the technical flaws the report identified were committed by servicers in the spirit of helping COVID-affected borrowers get out of tolerance and into their homes in the fastest, most efficient way possible,” it added. They said. “Others were an unfortunate result of the program’s requirements being confusing or conflicting and the inherent difficulties of quickly scaling up such a massive borrower assistance effort.”
Nevertheless, the successes should not be overlooked given the threat the COVID-19 emergency presents to borrowers.
,[M]Make no mistake, the implementation of COVID-19 relief has been a huge success story by focusing on delivering positive outcomes for homeowners,” Brockshmit said.
Earlier this week, the HUD OIG published two separate reports examining mortgage servicers’ loss mitigation practices — and mr cooper especially. The reports alleged that the servicers did not meet HUD’s requirements to provide loss mitigation options to borrowers with outstanding loans. federal housing administration (FHA).
