Ginnie Mae training says CEO or CFO (or equivalent) must certify audited financials in new GMC financials module

Ginnie Mae representatives told mortgage issuers during a webinar that the new Ginnie Mae Central (GMC) financials module requires an authorized signer — the CEO, CFO or an organizational equivalent — to certify audited financial-statement submissions, and they walked attendees through the upload, package and certification workflow and how to request an extension.

The requirement matters because the authorized signer both certifies the interim or audited financials and triggers the submission into Ginnie Mae’s review queue. "Those authorized signers, CEO or equivalent, must be signing in GMC relative to the audited financial statement submission," Paul, a Ginnie Mae representative on the call, said when a participant asked whether another signer could fulfill the role.

The webinar was presented by Natalina, a Deloitte consultant on the GMC product team, who demonstrated how to access Ginnie Mae Central (MyGinnieMae → Tools → Ginnie Mae Central), start an AFS (audited financial statement) review, upload the PDF package, complete the questionnaire that drives package sections, and then send the package for certification. "Once you have completed the questionnaire...you will then send the documentation for certification," Natalina explained, emphasizing that entries in the questionnaire drive the package sections and cannot be changed after submission.

Several participants raised practical concerns about getting CEOs or CFOs to log in, be provisioned to the HUD 1170-2 role and authenticate with an RSA token. Carrie, a Credit Human representative, said the process will be challenging for smaller organizations: "This is just really challenging," she said, noting the difficulty of getting a CEO into another system to sign. Paul and Natalina acknowledged those concerns and advised issuers to plan ahead; Paul added that filing an extension can be a practical short-term solution while an issuer brings the authorized signer into the role.

Natalina demonstrated the extension-request flow and timing. Extension requests must be created at least 15 days before the original due date and the system enforces a limit (the speaker showed that the new due date cannot exceed 30 days past the current due date). The extension form asks for interim financial statements, a proposed new due date, reason for the request and auditor contact information; the extension request must then be certified by an authorized signer before the new due date takes effect. "Come in with the extension request...at least 15 days prior to the deadline," Paul said, encouraging proactive submissions.

On the package details, Natalina walked through key sections issuers must complete: balance-sheet totals (assets, liabilities, equity), income-statement page numbers and net income/loss, adjusted net worth (including government-sponsored enterprise UPV fields), lists of unacceptable assets, liquid-asset entries (selectable from a dropdown or entered as "other"), capital requirements (the system calculates leverage ratios), and insurance-related fields (servicing portfolio UPB). She demonstrated the system's compliance markers and explained that, after sections are marked complete and the package is sent for certification, the authorized signer accepts a certification task, reviews the package and authenticates via an RSA token before final submission.

Natalina said the GMC rollout went live in May 2024 and that Ginnie Mae has posted modernization bulletins, quick reference cards, user manuals and e-learning videos; she said the recording and materials will be emailed to attendees. Participants were advised to consult their auditors for questions about audit content and to contact Ginnie Mae support when they have system-specific questions. "We will be sending out an email to everyone that attended today with the important links and these slides for your reference," Natalina said.

Ginnie Mae representatives indicated the CEO/CFO-or-equivalent requirement stands for now but said the agency could revisit the policy if it proves operationally problematic: "If this does become, you know, problematic, Ginnie Mae, of course, can revisit it," Paul said. The session ended with presenters reiterating that resources and contact information will be distributed to attendees and that separate technical-assistance sessions for the insurance module are held as needed.

Next steps: issuers should review the posted materials, determine who in their organization will hold the authorized-signer role and, if necessary, file an extension request at least 15 days before the current due date to provide time to provision and authenticate the authorized signer.