MISMO Seeks Participants for Third-Party Risk Management Groups
MISMO®, the mortgage industry’s standards organization, seeks participants for two new groups designed to help improve risk management of third parties while reducing costs for all parties.
The first group, the Third Party Business Partners Risk Management Community of Practice, will provide a forum for industry-wide discussion of issues associated with the use of third party service providers and is expected to spawn specific task oriented efforts to develop best practices or standards for different aspects of third party risk management.
The second group, the Third Party Oversight Questionnaire Development Workgroup, is charged with adopting a standard list of questions that lenders and servicers can use to assess third parties.
“As our industry continues to expand, third party compliance and oversight have become major business obstacles,” said Rick Hill, executive vice president of MISMO. “Lenders and servicers are ultimately responsible for the work of third parties, but current practices for managing risk associated with third parties are often inefficient and expensive. As regulatory and investor requirements continue to push costs higher, the lack of industry-wide standards or best practices is costly for all involved. A collaborative effort to develop best practices and standards that includes lenders, service providers, investors and regulators, offers the opportunity to foster more efficient and productive third party risk management strategies that will benefit lenders, service providers and others.”
The Third Party Business Partners Risk Management Community of Practice will provide a forum that allows industry participants to discuss challenges and concerns involved with third party oversight. The group’s goal is to develop and encourage use of new standards, strategies and best practices for evaluating and managing third parties. Issues under consideration include risk assessment procedures across all stages of the relationship, including on boarding of third parties. Lenders, servicers, service providers, appraisers, title companies, software vendors, business groups and regulators are all invited to participate.
The Third Party Oversight Questionnaire Development Workgroup will adopt a standard set list of questions mortgage companies can use to assess third parties. The standardized questionnaire will provide a consistent and efficient way to collect information needed to assess third parties and the risks associated with their products and services. As part of this effort, the Workgroup will evaluate existing marketplace questionnaires to determine if they can be utilized in the mortgage industry standard. The Workgroup will also create guides for implementing and using the questionnaire.
By joining either group, participants can voice concerns and have a say in creation of new standards used by the entire industry. Individuals and companies do not have to be members of MISMO to join either group, but only MISMO members will be able to vote on any standards or serve in leadership roles.
Those interested in joining the Third Party Business Partners Risk Management Community of Practice should send an email with the subject “Join MISMO Third Party Business Partner CoP” to info@mismo.org by August 17. For the questionnaire group, send an email to info@mismo.org with “Third Party Questionnaire Group” in the subject field. More information on both industry-wide efforts can be found at www.mismo.org.
About MISMO
The Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization was created in 1999 to develop a common language for the mortgage finance industry. Today, MISMO standards are accepted and deployed by every type of entity involved in creating mortgages, and they are required by most regulators, housing agencies and GSEs that govern the exchange of information. Use of MISMO standards has been found to lower per loan costs, improve margins, reduce errors and speed up the loan process by reducing manual, paper-based processes. MISMO is managed by the Mortgage Bankers Association. For more information, visit www.mismo.org.
