Costs can be lowered as much as $249 per loan by adopting standards developed by the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization, according to a study released by the Mortgage Bankers Association at its annual convention in San Francisco.The study, the first-ever MISMO time-and-motion study to quantify the return on investment of adopting MISMO standards, found that 75% of the lowered costs directly benefit the lender, the MBA reported. Execution costs can be improved by 15.38 basis points, a 25% to 50% pickup in lending margins, or $450 for the average loan. As for time savings, lender respondents reported that it was possible to process a loan 16% faster when using MISMO standards. Only 40% of lenders say they are using MISMO, but 40% to 50% say they plan to use the standards in the near future. The survey was sent to all MISMO participants and Campus MBA and MBA NewsLink recipients. It was also posted on the MBA and MISMO websites. In total, 45 lenders/servicers and 80 vendors/suppliers responded. The MBA can be found online at http://www.mortgagebankers.org.
