MISMO reverse mortgage workgroup chair on ‘building a bridge to the mainland’

The dedicated reverse mortgage development workgroup inside the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization (MISMO) has been working diligently for much of the past year to develop holistic support for reverse programs across new and existing MISMO subscribers. It’s also working to publish data in an industry-standard format to increase efficiency among stakeholders.

George Morales, the national sales director for Mortgage Cadence, was appointed as the workgroup’s chair in July 2024. He has provided periodic updates on its work since then.

Following the announcement this week that the latest version of MISMO’s reference model includes reverse mortgage features, Morales sat down with HousingWire’s Reverse Mortgage Daily (RMD) to get a better understanding of what the new update means for the ongoing work.

Consistent work

The group has been meeting consistently every other week to contribute to the shared effort, including professionals both inside and outside the reverse mortgage industry.

Since collaboration is the name of the game, Morales called the reverse mortgage implementation into version 3.6.1 of the MISMO reference model a “significant lift” that requires engagement from everyone about specific details.

The work was productive but required everybody to get on the same page, Morales said. It involved a shared “posture of learning,” which he said served the unit well.

“And because of that, it really did make our collaboration smooth between the forward and the reverse worlds,” he said. “And then even, specifically, the way MISMO designs, constructs and governs their own processes — all of that was really smooth.”

Morales also specifically called out the valuable contributions of MISMO volunteers from the forward mortgage industry, saying they helped everyone to embrace the opportunity presented by the work.

“It’s all about building a bridge between forward and reverse through technology,” Morales explained. “Now there’s a bridge to the mainland, if you will. And now it’s time to get lenders to get the adoption and implementation discussions going.”

Next stop: secondary

The new reference model has some work ahead of it, Morales said. But once it’s accomplished, the group has its next project in sight.

“Once we get some of the i-dotting and t-crossing out of the way, we’re going to move on to doing the same thing but with a focus on the secondary market for reverse mortgages,” Morales said. “That’s the next pillar that we’re attacking.”

The work that has been done already is expected to be invaluable as the workgroup embarks on the next steps, he said.

“We’ve handled origination/underwriting, and now we’re going to go on to secondary, which means that we are going to be putting out a call for industry participation from subject matter experts (SMEs) that are active in the reverse secondary space,” he said.

Secondary market work can be complicated, Morales explained, but the group learned a lot of valuable lessons from its origination and underwriting work that he expects will carry over well into the next phase.

“Initially, we’ll start with the end in mind, and together as a group work to define what we want to deliver to the mortgage industry,” he said. “And then from there, we’ll go back and start building it.

“That means introducing data points, definitions and enumeration that can be standardized and then presented into a future version of the MISMO reference model.”