Ginnie Mae trains issuers on expanded RFS loan-level reporting ahead of Sept. 1 go-live

Ginnie Mae held a webinar on Aug. 22, 2024, to train issuers on expanded loan-level data reporting in the Reporting and Fulfillment System (RFS) that will take effect Sept. 1, 2024. Heather Jompole, a Ginnie Mae project manager, told attendees that 11 new data elements and updated removal reason codes are being added and that 100% of issuers completed testing.

The changes include new scheduled-amount fields (30–32), the gross service fee collected (field 33), the actual payment date (field 34) and a curtailment principal code (field 35). For single-family adjustable-rate loans additional fields (36–38) must be reported when available. Field 26 will capture the servicer or subservicer issuer ID and field 27 the six-digit document custodian number, which Christy Christiansen, a presenter, said should be populated for all active loans in the initial September submission and thereafter for new securitized loans or when servicer/custodian changes occur. "All issuers are expected to deliver the new data elements effective September 1," Jompole said.

Christy Christina (presenter) walked through specific reason-code updates on the L record (field 25). Code 2 has been reworded from "repurchase of delinquent" to "buyout of delinquent loan;" code 3 now reads "foreclosure with or without claim payment;" code 6 is relabeled "other removal;" and code 7 (special assistance) has been added for single-family loans and, she said, will require Ginnie Mae written approval in many cases, citing the MBS Guide. "Code 7 will be like code 6 and require Ginnie Mae written approval," Christy said.

Debbie Bowles led examples and exception guidance. She demonstrated gross service fee calculations using an amortization schedule and emphasized that the gross service fee amount should come from issuers' servicing systems rather than being calculated by RFS for reporting. "If you put a 0 in there, it will generate an exception," Bowles warned during Q&A about scheduled fields, clarifying that entering an extra zero or an incorrectly formatted value will trigger a critical exception.

Bowles also reviewed delinquent and prepaid examples to show how fields should be populated. For delinquent loans, she said, RFS expects the actual payment date to match the reported last-installment-paid date and that absence of the actual payment date will generate an exception. The panel repeated that appendix 6-19 (footer date 09/01/2024) will be published on Sept. 1 and will include definitions for the new fields and the curtailment principal code choices.

During the Q&A the team addressed practical questions about forms, testing and transfers. An attendee asked whether the 11/07/2008 document forms will be updated to reflect new wording; the panel committed to taking that as an action and following up via ticket or the askjennymay@hud.gov mailbox. On testing, presenters said formal testing (with May data) was complete but offered to work with issuers individually on additional test-file submissions where feasible.

The webinar closed with reminders: the presentation and recording will be posted to the MyGinnieMae portal, a second identical training session is scheduled for Aug. 28, and issuers should download appendix 6-19 when it publishes on Sept. 1. The panel asked attendees to clear any critical exceptions by the fourth business day (7 p.m. Eastern) using the existing manual-update or file-upload processes.

Next steps: issuers should confirm their servicer/subservicer IDs and document-custodian numbers are populated in RFS for the initial September submission, review appendix 6-19 when posted, and contact askjennymay@hud.gov for follow-up or to open tickets for edge cases such as seasoned-loan MSR transfers.