Oct

Client Bulletin: October 30, 2023

What You Need to Know for Year-End

As we enter the homestretch of 2023, 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 11, 2023 and January 5, 2024. 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, 2023 and January 18, 2024.

All requests will be implemented once this freeze lifts.

Transfer ‘Blackout’ Period

We will observe a transfer “blackout” period from December 18, 2023 through January 3, 2024. 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 (1/1/2024) 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-23	Internal Transfers	Submission of Final Loan List	Tuesday, 11/8/23 (no change to standard) Tuesday, 11/21/23 (change from standard date of the 23rd)
Dec-23	Internal Transfers	Submission of Final Loan List	Thursday, 12/8/23 (no change to standard) Tuesday, 12/19/23 (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 8, 2023. This will ensure borrowers receive the correct Form 1098 information. Please submit requests via CCM.

All new loans closed in 2023 must board by January 5, 2024. 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.

David Schneider Named President of Cenlar FSB

Effective immediately, David Schneider has been appointed President of Cenlar FSB, and also will re-join the Board of Directors. With this change, John Mezzasalma, previously our SVP Finance, has been named acting CFO. Jim Daras will continue to serve as Chief Executive Officer.

Schneider manages Cenlar’s Banking, Financial, Client Management, Core Operations, Default Operations, Borrower Operations, Transfer Operations and Project Management businesses. He is an accomplished and highly regarded mortgage banking executive, with deep financial and mortgage servicing expertise. His career spans over 35 years in mortgage banking and consumer banking.

Prior to joining Cenlar, Schneider served in executive leadership positions for three mortgage companies, two of which are backed by major private equity firms. He was the President of CitiMortgage, President of WaMu Home Loans, CEO of Lone Star-backed Vericrest, President of Ditech and CEO of Blackstone-backed Stearns Lending, as well as head of JPMorgan’s National Servicing and Default Operations.

Mezzasalma is a proven financial executive with more than 17 years of experience in Corporate and Operational Accounting, Audit, Internal Controls, Taxes and Finance. As acting CFO, he will work closely with Schneider and Daras.

New Homeowner Email List Now on CenAccess

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 10.15.23.”

This file is updated with the most-recent list of homeowner emails once each month.

Cenlar Call Centers Open Friday, Nov. 10

Our call center representatives will be ready and available to assist your homeowners during regular call center hours on Friday, Nov. 10, Veterans Day (Observed). Our call centers will be closed for Veterans Day on Saturday, Nov. 11.