MBA Forming Year-2000 Testing Office

The Mortgage Bankers Association of America and a group of 15 major mortgage industry firms have announced that they are creating an office to test the mortgage industry's readiness for the year 2000.The testing program will allow mortgage industry companies meeting certain eligibility requirements to test their systems for year-2000 readiness with their trading partners. The companies estimate that they will spend upwards of $500 million in the testing effort, said Joe McCartin, chairman of the MBA committee on the year-2000 issue and an official with G.E. Capital Mortgage Services. Startup costs for the program will be provided by the MBA, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac. The announcement was made at the MBA's Servicing Conference in San Francisco.