'GUS' About to Make Debut

The USDA's Rural Development Service plans to begin testing GUS, its automated underwriting system, with seven lenders in August.Once the risk assessment process is completed, it also hopes to expand its pilot construction-to-permanent loan program for new construction with Chase Home Mortgage to other lenders, the agency's Roger Glendenning said at the Mortgage Bankers Association's Government Housing Finance Conference. The current plan for GUS is to expand the experiment to seven more lenders in the early fall and then, "if all goes well," begin a "controlled rollout" of the program this winter, Mr. Glendenning said.