Top 5 Things You Should Know About Being iLAD-Ready

Jonathan Kearns is Vice President of MISMO®, the standards development body for the mortgage industry. MISMO developed a common language for exchanging information for the mortgage finance industry. MISMO is a subsidiary of the Mortgage Bankers Association. For more information, visit www.mismo.org.

Is your organization using the MISMO Industry Loan Application Dataset (iLAD) outside the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac automated underwriting systems?

MISMO, the industry’s standards organization, developed iLAD through close collaboration across the industry, including with lenders, vendors, IT companies and GSEs. The MISMO Loan Application Data Exchange (LADE) Development Work Group is working to ensure these iLAD specifications will continue to evolve to meet industry needs.

Here are 5 key reasons why iLAD needs to be part of your data exchange roadmap.

1. iLAD is the replacement to the Fannie Mae DU 3.2 flat file that was the de facto standard for transacting loan application data through the mortgage industry.
2. iLAD is an industry standard specification describing loan application data and is based on the MISMO v3.4 XML Reference Model. It is a companion to the redesigned GSE Uniform Residential Loan Application (URLA).
3. iLAD is a “superset” of application and underwriting data that allows you to reduce costs, eliminate manual processes and remove custom build file exchanges.
4. iLAD improves interoperability by enabling organizations to share data with trading partners in a consistent and standardized manner.
5. iLAD improves transparency and communication and is agnostic to investor and business processes – it supports DU and LPA equally – so that no one is disadvantaged.  

MISMO encourages lenders to talk with their business leaders, trading partners and vendors on the importance of iLAD. If iLAD is not on your roadmap yet, you should take steps now to include it. For more information and/or to get involved with the LADE DWG visit the Loan Application Data Exchange DWG | MISMO. Any iLAD questions, please contact me at jkearns@mba.org.