The Empower loan origination system will make mortgage applicants' positive rent payments more visible to lenders, tapping into a government program that's aided thousands of borrowers.
"Our task-based orchestration engine allows lenders to improve pull-through for borrowers with nontraditional credit references without burdening loan officers or processors," said Rich Gagliano, Dark Matter CEO, in a press release.
Positive rent payment data comes into play when a loan application doesn't initially receive an approve-eligible recommendation from DU, Dark Matter said. If DU suggests evaluating an applicant's rent payment history, Empower routes a 12-month asset verification report from Information Research's AccountChek software to DU.
The GSE says its software attempts to identify 12 months of rent payments of $300 or more per month. The pilot program does not count delinquent rent payments, and is eligible for first-time homebuyers with credit scores of at least 620.
Fannie Mae as of the fourth quarter of 2023 claimed around 5,600 applications have benefited from the feature between September 2021 to December 2023. Forty-one percent of those borrowers identified as Black or Latino/Hispanic, a target demographic for the GSE's
"This new workflow makes it more practical for lenders to take advantage of this feature, which can help more first-time homebuyers qualify for a home loan," said Peter Skarnulis, vice president of single-family digital management solutions at Fannie Mae, in a press release.
Dark Matter earlier this month also announced an Empower integration with Experian for lenders to access the credit reporting agency's verified income and employment information.
The Empower owner
