The Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization (MISMO) has updated its Mortgage Insurance Implementation Guide to incorporate data requirements for VantageScore 4.0 and FICO 10T, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) subsidiary announced Thursday.

The guide provides a standardized data framework for electronic information exchange between lenders and mortgage insurers across key processes, including mortgage insurance (MI) rate quotes, commitments, contract underwriting, document delivery and querying for MI order responses, according to the announcement.

The latest changes add support for the newer credit models that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are expected to adopt as part of the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s credit scoring modernization initiative. That shift will require lenders, mortgage insurers and technology providers to adjust how they capture and transmit credit data for loan qualification and pricing.

MISMO said the enhancements are designed to streamline how MI-related information is exchanged across systems, improve consistency in data delivery and help organizations modernize their MI workflows. For lenders, standardized data can reduce custom integrations with individual MI providers and lower the risk of errors or rework when ordering or updating coverage.

“Standardizing how lenders and mortgage insurers exchange information is critical to improving efficiency across the mortgage ecosystem,” Brian Vieaux, president of MISMO said in a statement. “The updated Mortgage Insurance Implementation Guide is essential to enabling the use of modern credit scoring models such as VantageScore 4.0 and FICO 10T. It also helps lenders benefit from improved system integration and more efficient loan qualification, while giving mortgage insurers access to more complete and consistent data.”

The Mortgage Insurance Implementation Guide was developed by MISMO’s Mortgage Insurance Community of Practice in response to industry demand for more consistent MI data exchange practices. The work group is led by Leslie Bensen of MGIC as chair, with Nayanika Sanyal of Arch Mortgage Insurance Co. and Candy Hepfner of MGIC as co-vice chairs.

The guide has reached MISMO’s “Candidate Recommendation” status, meaning it has broad industry consensus and is considered ready for implementation. At this status level, organizations are encouraged to begin planning and execution, with the expectation that only minor clarifications, if any, would be made going forward.

MISMO urged lenders and technology providers to coordinate with their MI partners when implementing the updates. For housing professionals, this coordination will be critical as the industry moves toward production use of VantageScore 4.0 and FICO 10T, which are expected to change how credit risk is measured, especially for thin-file and historically underserved borrowers.

This article was generated using HousingWire Automation and reviewed by a HousingWire editor before publication.

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