Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac launch new dynamic loan app

Updated dynamic and interactive versions of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's redesigned Uniform Residential Loan Application are out.

The release of a dynamic version of the recently revised static loan app fulfills promises to make it available by year-end.

But lenders still won't be allowed to use the new app with live production for at least another year.

Fannie and Freddie earlier this year delayed implementation of the new application until February 2019, when use of the form will be optional. The original plan called for implementation to start in 2018.

The new loan app becomes mandatory for all new originations starting in February 2020 and lenders won't be allowed to electronically submit older versions of the app beginning in February 2021.

In the meantime, the new dynamic app will allow lenders to begin familiarizing themselves with the form and gearing up for its eventual use.

The government-sponsored enterprises first released specifications for a new application that removed obsolete questions and added new data points and capabilities back in August 2016.

The original specifications for the form did not include a language question. But the GSEs' regulator and conservator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, reconsidered that decision back in May and ended up adding a language question this year.

Approximately 25 million U.S. residents representing 9% of the total population have limited English proficiency, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. The majority of these borrowers speak Spanish as their primary language.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been planning to update their loan application since at least 2013.