Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the GSEs) announced today, August 8, 2019, a delay of the mandatory use date for the revised URLA, stating that it “will no longer begin on February 1, 2020.” The GSEs did not announce a new date for mandatory use, meaning it is essentially TBD. The GSEs also announced specific changes that will be made to the revised URLA, including:

• Removing the Language Preference question.

• Removing the Homeownership Education and Housing Counseling questions.

• The “Use and Sharing of Information" section in the Acknowledgements will be revised to address specific uses of borrower data.

• The Military Service question on page 1 will be moved to a new section adjacent to the Demographic Information.

Significantly, for the removed questions, the GSEs stated that instead there will be a “voluntary consumer information form,” which will not be part of the revised URLA, to collect the information. It remains to be seen what this voluntary form will look like, how and when it will have to be provided to consumers, and whether any information from the form will be required to be submitted to the GSEs or regulators. This will be something to keep an eye on.

The GSEs stated that the form changes were directed by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), and the mandatory use date is being postponed “to allow industry participants time to make the necessary change.” The GSEs stated that they “will provide more information about the new implementation dates as soon as it is available.”

You can find the announcement at https://www.fanniemae.com/content/news/urla-announcement-august-2019.pdf

Please let us know if you have any questions about this or any other issues related to mortgage applications.