As the mortgage industry continues evolving digitally, MISMO is developing standards for business to consumer transactions on mobile devices, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
MISMO's initiative comes at a time where more borrowers are applying for and researching mortgage loans on their handhelds, but no industry standards exist for using smartphone devices or JavaScript Object Notation (data structuring terminology frequently used on mobile platforms).
"A growing number of lenders are already using JSON to collect information and conduct business with consumers via smartphones, including mortgage preapprovals," Rick Hill, MISMO executive vice president and MBA vice president of industry technology, said in a press release.
While the mortgage sector tends to
"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," said Hill.
MISMO's new B2C development workgroup will focus on identifying both required and optional B2C transactions throughout the mortgage lifecycle, pinpointing and implementing the business drivers for developing technical specifications for consumer transactions, and crafting JSON language specifications for required and possibly optional consumer transactions, according to the MBA.
MISMO will craft a business reference model for borrower communications in addition to decision rules, engineering standards and a white paper on how smart devices will affect the mortgage process.
"As the mortgage industry pursues digital transformation, using industry-wide standards to communicate will be critical to our success," Shelley Leonard, chief product officer at Black Knight, said in a press release.
