BWTDCC PART DVA
(dva is 2 in Croatian -- thank you Yale)
I love it! Recently, you read “better ways to describe complicated crap” right here. Now, thank you, National Mortgage News for gifting us with “10 more abbreviations every mortgage pro must know”! What fun! This time, let’s compose a chart, a sort of before and after version of, yes, better ways to describe MORE complicated crap!
| BEFORE | HUH? | AFTER |
| FHFA – Federal Housing Finance Agency | From Investopedia: “The role of the FHFA was previously handled by two other organizations, the Federal Housing Finance Board and the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, with input from the government-sponsored enterprise office of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The new organization's goals include increasing affordable housing, conserving the assets and property of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and stabilizing a turbulent U.S. economy. | So, the FHFA (pronounced faaa?) is really the FHFB and OFHEO with input from GSOUSDHUD or FHFBOFHEOGSOUSDH? Too easy … this now becomes FUHUD – simple, clear, and easy to pronounce. |
| WAM – weighted average maturity | Zacks tells us that, “Weighted average loan maturity refers to when, on average, a portfolio of loans will come due. A weighted average differs from a simple arithmetic average, however. When calculating a weighted average figure, the bigger loans have greater weights. This better represents the amount of time that must pass before you will receive or pay out each average dollar. A weighted average loan maturity is equally helpful whether you are the borrower or the lender.” | So much material, so little space. Therefore, we’ll just call this one, Thank You Ma’am – see David Bowie for further explanation. |
| PMIER – Private Mortgage Insurer Eligibility Requirements | Look! This one has its own Facebook page!! Oh, never mind. That’s a college in the Philippines. I thought I lucked out again when I found PMIER on acronymsmeaning.com! But no. The first sentence was the giveaway that I was on the wrong site, “PMIER has a life path of 7.” Umm, what? Instead, as it relates here and per benzinga.com, “PMIERs establishes the requirements that a private mortgage insurance company must meet to be an approved insurer and provide mortgage guaranty insurance on loans acquired by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.” | Good grief – PMIER is kind of like saying, “Are you solvent, do you have enough money for when times get ugly, are you a real company, blah, blah”. We’ll clarify this via the new acronym – WYD, pronounced WIDE – and standing for Who’s Your Daddy, since that’s the question my parents always asked my dates to determine their worthiness. |
| COFI – Cost of Funds Index | This is not a Starbucks reference. Just ask Bankrate. “A monthly cost-of-funds index (COFI) reflecting the weighted-average interest rate paid by 11th Federal Home Loan Bank District savings institutions for savings and checking accounts. The 11th district covers Arizona, California and Nevada. The index is published on the last day of the month and reflects the cost of funds for the prior month.” Clear as mud, right? | We’ll go ahead and rename this one CY -- pronounced sigh – as is Caught You as in when the interest rates go higher than you imagined or were told up front. |
| UCD -- Uniform Closing Dataset | No, no, not University College Dublin or even UC Davis. But let’s digress just for a second. Did you know that Edmund Harty, the 2012 Dairymaster Chief and Entrepreneur of the Year recently joined the Irish UCD!? Nor did I. See Tweet below.
Anyway, Fannie Mae clearly explains that in this context, “The Uniform Closing Dataset (UCD) is a component of the Uniform Mortgage Data Program® (UMDP®), an ongoing effort by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac at the direction of our regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, to provide a common industry dataset to support the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) Closing Disclosure.” |
Oh my, oh my, oh my. At the risk of getting rude and using profanity, we’ll quickly rename this one DaDu, short for Data Dump and leave it at that. |
| SCRA – Servicemembers Civil Relief Act | The Department of Justice is clear in stating, “The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA), formerly known as the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Civil Relief Act (SSCRA), is a federal law that provides protections for military members as they enter active duty. It covers issues such as rental agreements, security deposits, prepaid rent, eviction, installment contracts, credit card interest rates, mortgage interest rates, mortgage foreclosure, civil judicial proceedings, automobile leases, life insurance, health insurance and income tax payments.” But I was unable to find something similar for military members as they leave active duty. Hmm. | I want this one to be called POVL, pronounced Povel, for Part One Veterans Love. How’s that? And maybe Part Two can contain provisions for ensuring no vets are homeless. Perhaps we build them all tiny houses, like Kansas City did! Editorial comment for today has thus concluded. |
| FIRREA – Financial Institutions Reform Recovery and Enforcement Act | I had to tap the forces of our old friend Wikipedia to explain this one in clear English: “The Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989 (FIRREA), is a United States federal law enacted in the wake of the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s. It established the Resolution Trust Corporation to close hundreds of insolvent thrifts and provided funds to pay out insurance to their depositors. It transferred thrift regulatory authority from the Federal Home Loan Bank Board to the Office of Thrift Supervision.” I would like to point out two things. 1) the meltdown of 2007 and 8 was certainly not the first financial crisis in the US since the Great Depression. 2) Said as one would suspect, this acronym may just be the only word that rhymes with what bismuth subsalicylate (AKA Kaopectate and Pepto-Bismol) cures. [sorry!] So why are we discussing this today, you ask? “FIRREA is now a useful tool for the Justice Department in probing poor-quality bank loans today. That's because Section 951 gives prosecutors the ability to show the burden of proof needed for civil cases, not criminal ones. That means they only have to show "a preponderance of evidence" instead of "beyond a reasonable doubt." The Justice Department successfully used FIRREA to prosecute banks that issued housing market during the run-up to the financial crisis.” – courtesy of the balance. |
Since this Act essentially allows banks to be fined, taken to court, sued, etc. let’s call it BBBBB for Big Box Banks Big Brother? |
| CLTV – Combined Loan to Value | Too simple. As stated by Investopedia, “The combined loan-to-value ratio (CLTV Ratio) is the ratio of all loans secured by a property to the property's value. For example, suppose an individual is purchasing property valued at $200,000, and this individual takes out two loans for the property, one for $100,000 and another for $50,000. The combined loan to value ratio would be 75%, (($100,000 + $50,000) / $200,000).Combined Loan To Value Ratio (CLTV Ratio)” | CLTV is fine, but not to be confused in this reference with Chicagoland TV, AKA CLTV. |
| ARC – Accelerated Remittance Cycle |
Freddie Mac offers it sellers (that’s not John Q. Public, that’s your mortgage company), a few different ways to submit payments to them. Here are the specific ARC details, “P&I payments are typically due to Freddie Mac three business days after the 15th of each month (versus First Tuesday remittance, standard for WAC ARM guarantor deliveries, where you remit P&I on the first Tuesday of the month following the month the payment is due to you) In exchange for choosing a shorter remittance cycle, your pricing is enhanced by an amount communicated in basis points The ARC pricing enhancement is updated and published by Freddie Mac on a monthly basis on this web page. All ARM products through WAC ARM Guarantor are eligible for ARC.” In this case (tee hee), Wac Arm stands for Weighted Average Coupon Adjustable Rate Mortgage. |
ARC is way too pretty a word to be used when speaking of WAC ARMs! It should be reserved for beautiful things like Arc de Triomphe. We’ll change it to PNOL for Pay Now or Later and leave it at that. |
| MISMO – Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization | Crunchbase briefly explains that, “MISMO® is the standards development body for the mortgage industry.” But, interestingly, in Spanish, it means ”same”. So – standards, keep the same, make things uniform, etc. Surely it is an accident that this acronym makes some sort of sense, right? | We can’t possibly change one that kind of, sort of makes sense! Can we? Perhaps we shall enjoy a Lo Mismo and think it over. 😊 |
Please don’t think the mortgage industry is the only line of business with wacky acronyms. The Atlantic.com is tipping its hat to these also created by the government, but worthy of at least mini admiration. Here’s an abbreviated sampling:
- ATTIRE (American Textile Technology Innovation and Research for Exportation)
- BEER (Brewers Excise and Economic Relief Act of 2013)
- CINEMA (Captioning and Image Narration to Enhance Movie Accessibility Act)
- FUELS (Farmers Undertake Environmental Land Stewardship Act)
- HIRE (Helping Individuals Return to Employment Act)
- IFSEA (International Fisheries Stewardship and Enforcement Act)
- JOBS (Jumpstarting Our Business Sector Act of 2013)
- RESPECT (Requirements, Expectations, and Standard Procedures for Executive Consultation with Tribes Act)
Here are a few – JUST starting with the letter A -- your doctor might use, from The Happy Hospitalist:
- ADQ - acute drama queenitis; can apply to males or females.
- AHF - acute hissy fit.
- APD - acute Prozac deficiency.
- ASL - assess stupidity level.
- ATTE - actively trying to expire.
- ATS - acute Thespian syndrome (patient is faking illness).
Acronyms are also all over the TV, especially in commercials. Click here for one from AT&T (formerly Cingular). Yes, acronyms are everywhere. For example, Cafepress.com has an entire selection of Funny Acronyms Calendars For 2017 – 2018!
It is my fervent hope you chose NOT to think:
| tl:dr | too long, didn't read |
regarding this blog. Just in case, however, I BBG or, according to allacronyms.com, I Best be Going!
