As we enter the homestretch of 2022, Cenlar has begun planning for year-end.
Here’s what you need to know about our annual technology freeze, new loan submissions, the transfer “blackout” period and modifications to the transfer schedule in the final weeks of the year:
Technology Freeze
This year’s technology freeze will occur between December 12, 2022 and January 5, 2023. During this time, we will not be deploying client-requested changes into production.
This freeze period is extended for any client-requested web or branding changes. For these types of requested changes, the year-end freeze will take place between November 17, 2022 and January 19, 2023.
All requests will be implemented once this freeze lifts.
Transfer ‘Blackout’ Period
We will observe a transfer “blackout” period from December 19, 2022 through January 4, 2023. This blackout period is primarily driven by Cenlar’s year-end system freeze. During this time, transfer activities (including programming changes and testing) will be halted for:
New Loan Interface Development Processes.
Inbound One-Time Bulk and Flow Transactions for new sellers. No new sellers will be established during this period of time.
Bulk and Interim Service Loan Releases: While we can accommodate year end transfers, need to be mindful of borrower/member impact due to an extended transition period because of the New Year’s Day holiday (01/02/23) and potential file delivery delays due to end of year processing.
Transfer Schedule Modifications
The dates to submit loan level list/files for Internal Transfers have been modified and outlined below.
Month
Transfer Type
Activity
Date
Nov-22
Internal Transfers
Submission of
Final Loan List
Tuesday, 11/08/22 (no change to standard)
Tuesday, 11/22/22 (change from standard date of the 23rd)
Dec-22
Internal Transfers
Submission of
Final Loan List
Thursday, 12/08/22 (no change to standard)
Tuesday, 12/20/22 (change from standard date of the 23rd)
New Loan Submissions
New loans requiring maintenance of year-end fields must be sent to us via a corrected 1098 data file by December 9, 2022. This will ensure borrowers receive the correct Form 1098 information. Please submit requests via CCM.
All new loans closed in 2022 must board by January 6, 2023. This will enable us to complete year-end tax reporting and distribution of a Form 1098 to your homeowners.
If you have any questions, please contact your client manager.
A Note on Servicing eNote Loans
If you plan to submit loans closed with eNotes for boarding or if any eNote loans will be included in future incoming transfers, please submit a Client Request Form via CCM in order to request eNote implementation.
Your client manager will then reach out to you to begin discussing Cenlar’s eNote servicing guidelines. During this meeting, we will discuss important processes, such as designating Cenlar as the subservicer so that we can update the MERS eRegistry for eNote life of loan changes, as well as associated costs.
Important Reminder for Clients Already Submitting eLoans for Servicing
If you already are submitting eLoans to us for servicing, please ensure that you are using the eNote indictor field as intended, or we will not know to service the loan according to eNote guidelines. If you’ve previously submitted loans to us without the eNote indicator, we will need a list of your eNote loans so that we can update our servicing system.
Here are the field guidelines as a reminder:
Please add the new ‘MersNoteType’ field to the Cenlar XML boarding file, using the following indicators:
For loans with eNotes, will populate this field with an ‘E’
For loans with paper Notes, either populate with a ‘P’ or leave blank
If you have any questions or would like to discuss your upcoming eNote implementation, please contact your client manager.
Ginnie Mae Taps Cenlar to Test New Portal
As part of the effort to migrate its IT infrastructure and applications to the cloud, Ginnie Mae asked a few of its trusted partners to help validate that select functions on its critical systems work in their migrated environment. Cenlar was one such partner.
With an average tenure of 14 years on our team that works directly with Ginnie Mae, we have a strong relationship that has been built over many years. Ginnie Mae asked us — due to this relationship and the experience of our team — to test their new MyGinnieMae portal in September, before it rolled out. As a subservicer, Cenlar uses the portal often, frequently reporting system inadequacies and delays directly to Ginnie Mae Issuer Support.
With the upgrade, we can now move between issuers while in Ginnie Mae’s Reporting and Feedback System (RFS), which should save time and improve productivity.
Cenlar Continues to Support Homeowners Affected by Hurricane Ian
As one of our core values, caring is at the heart of who we are at Cenlar. In support of that ideal, we continue to be here to help your homeowners who have been affected by Hurricane Ian, which made landfall in Florida in late September.
Cenlar took steps before the storm’s arrival in order to be prepared to best assist these homeowners, which included identifying all loans where either the property itself or the filed mailing address are located in the area affected by Hurricane Ian. In the immediate aftermath of the storm, we sent emails to these homeowners outlining the assistance available to them.
Homeowners will have received another email—or a phone call if they don’t have an email address listed with us—to refresh them on these options.
We’ve gladly assisted these homeowners as they seek our help. Our contact centers have seen increased call volumes in recent weeks due to the effects of Hurricane Ian, which will be reflected on our call center performance statistics due to this higher demand.
On-site check endorsement to help homeowners claim funds
In order to assist homeowners affected by Hurricane Ian obtain claim funds quickly, Assurant will be establishing a check endorsement site in Punta Gorda, Florida, for their customers nearest to the greatest impacts from the storm.
Located at Four Points by Sheraton Punta Gorda Harborside (33 Tamiami Trail in Punta Gorda, FL 33950), the site will be open Tuesdays through Saturdays, from November 8 to 19. Homeowners may visit the site Tuesday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. or Saturday 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Homeowners should contact Assurant customer care before traveling to the mobile loss draft site to ensure Assurant will be able to endorse your customer’s check.
What’s New on CenAccess This Month
We have posted a list on CenAccess of all of the emails that we send to homeowners.
To access this list, go to the Training & Reference menu on CenAccess, and select “User Manuals.” The file name is “Email Listing for Clients_101522”.
This file will be updated with the most-recent list of homeowner emails once each month.
October 14 CenNet Payment Functionality Update
On Friday, October 14, we informed you that homeowners experienced some difficulty making payments via the CenNet website for a nearly a 3-hour window that morning. Our analysis of the issue showed that a system error while updating a backend database that supports CenNet caused the database and consequently the application to experience a delay during record retrieval. Our team was able to address the issue, which restored normal application response times.
In the future, the platform vendor has assured us that additional releases of the application will be more effectively tested.
