UCD Critical Edit Transition Phases 2-4 Timeline

Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae (the GSEs) published a joint announcement to notify lenders about the finalized timeline for the Uniform Closing Dataset (UCD) critical edits transition for Phases 2-4. This timeline was developed based upon industry feedback that considers competing priorities and required implementation resources and the dates for the remaining Phases are as follows:

  • Phase 2 – March 31, 2022
  • Phase 3 – September 30, 2022
  • Phase 4 – March 31, 2023

The GSEs encourage you to complete the transition activities ahead of schedule to ensure your organizations’ readiness in advance of each phase. Please refer to our UCD web page and the following resources to prepare for the transition:

Implementation Timeline for the Updated Automated Underwriting System (AUS) Specifications 

The Uniform Residential Loan Application (URLA) mandate required the use of the URLA (Fannie Mae Form 1003/Freddie Mac Form 65/Effective 1/2021) and Desktop Underwriter® (DU®) Specification MISMO v3.4/Loan Product Advisor® (LPASM) v5.0.06 file formats for all new loan applications started on March 1, 2021 and after.

The GSEs published updated AUS specifications (DU v1.8.2 and LPA v5.1.00) on June 29, 2021. The updates included enhanced implementation notes and formatting, alignment with AUS behavior applied during implementation, and a minimal number of data point/enumeration additions for the collection of more information on subordinate liens and interested party contributions.

Now that we are past the March mandate, the GSEs expect software providers to update their systems in accordance with established release schedules and current GSE implementation agreements. Lenders should continue to work with their software providers on implementing the updated AUS specifications to take advantage of the new functionality as quickly as possible.

The GSEs will track voluntary adoption from November 2021 to February 2022 and follow up with lagging lenders and software providers accordingly.

Loan Product Advisor® (LPASM) Specification v5.1.00 provides updated Freddie Mac requirements for the loan application submission file. As communicated in the September 7, 2021 Single-Family news article, LPA v5.1.00 became available in the customer test environment (CTE) on September 23, 2021 and will be available in production on November 14, 2021 to support our custom build lenders and software partners.

The specification, as well as the LPA v5.1.00 Specification Bulletin and other resources are available on the Freddie Mac Developer Portal and the Software Partner Resource Center. If you have questions about the URLA, LPA MISMO v3.4 file format, or supporting documents, please visit the Freddie Mac URLA/ULAD webpage, contact your Freddie Mac representative or email [email protected].