The system used to manage Federal Housing Administration mortgagee approval as well as ongoing mortgagee oversight is being enhanced.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development said that its Office of Single Family Housing is modifying its Lender Electronic Assessment Portal system of records to implement a series of new enhancements.
LEAP is utilized to obtain information from lending institutions seeking or maintaining FHA approval. It stores information on principals, officers, directors, managers and owners.
Enhancements to LEAP were outlined in a Federal Register filing Thursday by HUD’s Office of the Chief Information Officer.
Using LEAP, HUD processes applications to determine lender suitability. Creditworthiness, prior FHA lending history and outstanding legal, regulatory or compliance issues are all considered. Also factored in are outstanding federal debts or penalties and corporate officer experience.
LEAP also helps determine mortgagee compliance with FHA Title I and Title II authorities. This would include documented deviation from FHA policy and prior indemnifications.
HUD additionally uses LEAP to document the management structure of a mortgagee.
The filing indicates that the LEAP enhancements will improve its overall capabilities and streamline the re-certification process for approved FHA mortgagees.
Enhanced features of the system, which is externally hosted at a location in South Charleston, W.V., currently exist within other systems.
HUD is proposing to terminate regulatory notices it previously published pursuant to the Privacy Act of 1974.
LEAP will completely replace the HUD/HS-60: Institution Master File system of records published in 2009.
“The migration of records to LEAP from IMF allows HUD approved lenders to use LEAP to process its annual recertification, to manage institution/branch information and lender profiles, and its cash flow account setup activities,” the notice said. “Where traditionally lenders were required to access multiple systems to complete the annual recertification process, LEAP will enable lenders to complete all the required recertification submissions in one system.”
HUD noted that individual records in this system contain principally proprietary information concerning sole proprietorships. Some of the records in the system pertaining to individuals might reflect personal information subject to the Privacy Act.
Comments are due on May 27, which is also the effective data of the notice.
