MISMO to Create Standards for Business to Consumer Transactions

MISMO®, the mortgage industry standards organization, seeks participants to develop standards for conducting consumer transactions on mobile devices.

This initiative will focus on identification, description and facilitation of consumer-facing transactions in the lending life cycle. Those interested in collaborating with MISMO are invited to join MISMO’s new Business to Consumer (B2C) Development Workgroup.

“As the mortgage industry pursues digital transformation, using industrywide standards to communicate will be critical to our success,” said Shelley Leonard, Chief Product Officer with Black Knight Inc., Jacksonville, Fla.

This MISMO initiative is expected to be the first of many in which JSON will be used. JSON is short for JavaScript Object Notation, a lightweight language for structuring data that is frequently used on mobile platforms.

Lenders’ use of JSON has grown as more borrowers have begun researching and applying for mortgages on their phones and other smart devices. However, no standards exist for using smart phone devices or JSON in the mortgage process. The new MISMO workgroup will create a business reference model for borrower communications in addition to decision rules, engineering guidelines and a white paper on the impact of smart devices in the mortgage life cycle.

“A growing number of lenders are already using JSON to collect information and conduct business with consumers via smart phones, including mortgage preapprovals,” said MISMO Executive Vice President and MBA Vice President of Industry Technology Rick Hill. “Unless standards are developed as smart devices are deployed for mortgage transactions, adoption of these technologies could become very fragmented and lead to miscommunication between lenders and third parties. By collaborating with industry experts, MISMO hopes to bring consistency to B2C transactions and help more lenders take advantage of these exciting innovations.”

Specifically, the B2C Community of Practice will be tasked with:

–Identifying required and optional B2C transactions taking place throughout the mortgage life cycle;

–Identifying and implementing the business drivers for creating technical specifications for consumer transactions; and

Creating JSON language specifications for required consumer transactions and possibly for optional transactions.

By joining the MISMO B2C Development Workgroup, participants can access resources and expertise on leveraging smart technology to serve borrowers while simultaneously pursuing digital mortgages.

Those interested in participating in this collaborative, industry-wide effort should send an email titled “Join MISMO B2C Group” to info@mismo.org by Friday, August 3. More information is available at http://www.mismo.org/get-started/participate-in-a-mismo-workgroup/business-to-consumer-(b2c)-dwg.