FormFree recently announced that asset reports generated by its AccountChek automated asset verification service meet all underwriting guidelines established by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for loans guaranteed by its Loan Guaranty Service.
The announcement came following the VA’s Dec. 29, 2017, release of Circular 26-17-43, which was issued in response to increasing lender interest in automated verification of borrower assets for VA loans.
AccountChek was designed to eliminate the burden of gathering asset documents for loans by letting consumers easily and securely transmit their online banking, retirement and investment account data for automated analysis, according to a press release. AccountChek delivers asset data to lenders in a standardized report along with a ReIssueKey that enables secure and streamlined sharing with the secondary market. The goal behind the product is to provide an easier, safer and more accurate process that closes loans up to 20 days faster, provide a better borrower experience and circumvent several common issues that plague manual asset verification.
“AccountChek completely eradicates lenders’ need to track down missing statement pages, wait on deposits to clear or wait for new statement cycles to begin, which translates to substantial time and cost savings,” FormFree CEO Brent Chandler said in the release. “Moreover, AccountChek greatly reduces compliance risk for all parties to the loan by removing the opportunity for human error and fraud. Now, VA lenders and their investors can take advantage of the benefits of automated asset verification with confidence.”
The circular clarifies that the VA permits lender use of third-party providers for automated asset, income and employment verification. As always, lenders bear ultimate responsibility for ensuring the accuracy of all information upon which credit underwriting decisions are based.
“This clarification should give lenders the confidence they need to extend a significant benefit to our nation’s honored veterans,” Chandler said. “As a veteran myself, I am proud to help make the lives of VA borrowers easier by giving them a faster, easier way to obtain a mortgage.”