RFI.FINAL.05.27.25.docx

Request for Information (RFI) Vendors submitting responses must provide the following questions to aid in the market research of their capabilities and the draft PWS (page 4 below):

· Provide business name, address, and SAM Unique Entity Identification (UEI) Number.

· Provide name, title, email address, and telephone number of the Point of Contact for respondent.

· Identify your Business Size/Socio-Economic Status and Certification.

· Identify any GSA contracts (include GSA Contract Number) that your firm holds that are applicable to this requirement.

· Do you perform this service commercially?

1.**Technology and Reporting**:

Does the current operational environment support rapid-response data calls to fulfill time-sensitive or mandated reporting requirements?

Does the current technology infrastructure support cloud-based services such as SaaS (Software as a Service), PaaS (Platform as a Service), or IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service)?

Describe the vendor’s approach to implementing future IT enhancements, managing system changes, and selecting software products in alignment with operational and strategic goals.

If the vendor supports utilizing its servicing platform, how will Federal employees be granted access to the system, including onboarding or credentialing?

Does the vendor’s existing system support SaFe Agile development methodologies?

Does the vendor’s servicing system support this niche loan portfolio?

The government needs daily reconciliations of servicing activities. Please provide a detailed description of the vendor’s process, including any automation tools used.

Our loan servicing platform operates Sagent. What platform does the vendor currently use. Specifically, we need to understand how data mapping will be handled; validation steps will be in place to ensure accuracy and business continuity will be maintained throughout the transition and potential off ramp at contract end.

Would the vendor’s proposed approach involve onboarding loans into its proprietary servicing platform—customized to support our specific programs—or would the vendor plan to operate within our existing system to carry out loan servicing activities? Please explain the rationale for the preferred approach.

2. **Compliance and Security**:

Provide any relevant NAICS codes that correspond to the vendor’s activities related to servicing Rural Development’s Servicing Office’s loan portfolio.

Does the vendor utilize contractors, subcontractors, or staff located outside the United States? If so, please provide details on roles, oversight, and data security measures in place.

What experience does the vendor have in expeditiously implementing and reporting on changes resulting from new or revised policy priorities for housing loan programs?

Describe the methodology implemented for IT upgrades, patching, and compliance with legislatively mandated policies related to cybersecurity.

3. **Capability and Experience**:

Has the vendor provided servicing support for mortgage loan portfolios that include complex features such as borrower subsidies, subsidy recapture processes, payment moratoriums, extended repayment terms, or the use of the Treasury Offset Program? If so, please describe your vendor’s role and relevant experience.

Identify any teaming partners your vendor collaborates with who are equipped to support the current loan servicing environment and its anticipated future enhancements. Provide details on roles, oversight, and data security measures in place.

Define any operational efficiencies the vendor could achieve by performing all loan servicing functions holistically, including default management activities, within a single service delivery model.

Does the vendor have experience in making payments to external vendors or Pay.Gov as part of loan servicing operations? If so, please describe the process and compliance safeguards in place.

What methodology would be used to develop a cost strategy for performing servicing activities on single family housing loans?

What are the call center Key Performance Indicators (KPI) maintained by the vendor?

4. **Timeline**:

Describe the anticipated timeframe and key phases required for your organization to fully ramp up and assume the servicing responsibilities outlined in the Performance Work Statement (PWS).

If a Request for Quotation (RFQ) were issued at this time, would your vendor be prepared to submit a formal proposal?

**5. Vendor Requirement**:

· Vendor must be a licensed and approved USDA lender/servicer with 3 years servicing experience. Yes/No

· Vendor must me licensed to service loans in all the states, and territories. Yes/No

· Vendor must be in good standing with all Agencies (USDA/FHA/ VA/ GNMA/Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac) and must not be in violation of any guide or on any watchlist. Yes/No

· Vendor must have a current and acceptable rating from any of the rating companies (Moody’s, Fitch ext.). Yes/No

· Vendor must be a licensed Debt Collector in all the states and territories. Yes/No

· Vendor must have the technology, systems and ability to report to all Credit Bureaus. Yes/No

· Vendor must have a minimum of 3 years of experience in debt collection and demonstrate their ability to comply with Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) and Fair Debt Collections Practice Act (FDCPA). Yes/No

· Vendor must be well capitalized with the financial ability to advance up to $30 million dollars monthly for reasonable customary expenses and provide 2 years of financial audits. Yes/No

· Vendor must be a regulated and licensed entity with at least 3 years of demonstrated regulatory and audit exam history by a government agency. Yes/No

· Vendor must be compliant with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Yes/No

· Vendor carries levels of insurance coverage related to mortgage servicing and the safeguards of Personally Identifiable Information (PII) including limited to errors and Omissions (E&O, cyber security/Penetration, Ransomware etc. Yes/No

DRAFT PWS

Introduction The Servicing Office is requesting proposals from qualified vendors to provide loan servicing (servicing current, delinquent, terminated loans) and grant servicing: loss mitigation services; bankruptcy and foreclosures services; management and disposition of acquired properties; and provide accounting reports/data to the Single- Family Housing (SFH) Direct Loan portfolio, a complex loan type portfolio. The purpose of this RFI is to identify a capable mortgage loan servicer to assist and enhance our operations and create efficiencies in servicing the portfolio.

Background The Servicing Office is a financial services provider offering a wide range of lending products and operational support services. It ensures and verifies transactional input to the financial reporting and servicing systems and related financial records in accordance with requirements applicable to Federal, State, local statutes, Agency regulations and policies, Office of Management and Budget, Department of Treasury, Government Accountability Office, General Accepted Accounting Practices and Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Improvement Act. With continued growth, we seek to streamline our internal processes and ensure consistency in documentation, communication, and compliance across all Federal, state, local and Agency guidelines. The RFI is focused on servicing approximately 185,000 loans from the following programs:

502 Loan Program- (159,000 loans) This program offers mortgage financing to help eligible, low and very low-income applicants buy, build, improve, or repair a rural home as their primary residence. The Single-Family Housing Direct Loan Program also provides payment assistance – a temporary subsidy – to help increase a borrower’s repayment ability. The typical loan payback period is 33 years (38 years for very low-income applicants unable to afford a 33-year loan term).

504 Loan/Grant Program- (12,000 loans and 15,000 loan/grant combos) Also known as the Section 504 Home Repair program, it provides loans to very-low-income homeowners to repair, improve, or modernize their homes, or provides grants to elderly, very-low-income homeowners to remove health and safety hazards. The loan term is 20 years at 1 percent interest, fixed, Grants have a lifetime limit of $15,000, and must be repaid if your property is sold less than three years from the date of the grant award.

· 523/524 Loans- (4,000 loans) Section 523 loans are used to acquire and develop sites only for housing to be built using the Self-Help method. Low- and moderate-income families can use Section 524 Rural Housing Site Loans to acquire and develop rural housing sites with no restrictions regarding the method of construction.

533 Grants – (5,000 grants) USDA Rural Development Housing Preservation Grants (HPGs) provide funds to eligible organizations to repair or rehabilitate housing occupied by very-low and low-income families in eligible rural areas.

Scope The vendor will provide day-to-day support for servicing actions that assist the loan servicing team. These tasks include loan administration and servicing, portfolio monitoring and analysis, risk management, delinquency and default management, compliance and regulatory oversight, collateral and asset management and workout and restructuring.

The vendor will be expected to:

Provide loan servicing processes that are not deemed to be inherently governmental to include:

· Perform mortgage loan servicing for single family housing direct loans in accordance with USDA specific guidelines and all federal statutory and regulatory requirements. This includes the ability to expeditiously implement and report on changes resulting from new or revised policy priorities for housing loan programs. This includes new statutory authority and implementation of Executive Orders.

· Provide detailed reporting and data delivery activities, enhancing our financial and operational reporting initiatives.

· Actively collaborate with all operational units.

· Support change management and decision support activities.

· Ensure effective and efficient implementation of organizational change adhering to agency priorities and strategic initiatives.

· Track and document key loan operations activities.

· Prepare operational reports and maintain accurate records.

· Support internal audits and compliance tracking.

· Schedule meetings and manage documentation workflows.

Deliverables will include:

· USDA system access to portfolio

· Weekly or monthly status reports on as determined by USDA:

· portfolio

· risk management (analysis to evaluate portfolio resilience and strategies to mitigate risk

· delinquency and default (loss mitigation strategies, loan modifications, forbearance or foreclosure)

· compliance and regulatory oversight (maintaining accurate documentation and audit trails for regulatory review)

· collateral and asset management (monitor collateral values, appraisals, insurance tracking and property tax payments)

· Remittance of all borrower funds to the Government on a daily basis. To include a daily transactional file of all cash activities.

· Remittance of a daily account transaction file to support general ledger and data warehouse ie, USDA Dashboard.

Performance Objectives **Loan Servicing: ** Ensure timely and accurate processing of payments, account updates, and compliance checks.

The Vendor shall: provide support and coordination necessary to perform ministerial tasks across the Customer Loan Servicing and Asset and Business Operations Directorates. All services performed by the vendor will be under the direct supervision of the Federal oversight staff.

**Single-Family Support – Direct Loans**. This loan portfolio is a niche portfolio and it’s complex to service.

Escrow Support

· Processes escrow analysis statements for a nationwide portfolio of over 180,000 RD SFH-D customers.

· Conducts complex research of data related to escrow of tax and insurance and provides resolution to internal and external customers and provides input for congressional and escalated inquiries.

· Reconciles and balances disbursements for tax bills paid by Rural Development for a national portfolio of over 185,000 SFH-D customers, to various taxing authorities.

· Performs an audit of all new SFH D loan data fields pertaining to invoice payments to ensure data accuracy and completeness of SFH loans and grants.

· Performs reconciliations and balance disbursements for insurance premiums paid from escrow on the borrower’s behalf.

· Maintains escrow records in the accounting loan servicing system to ensure accurate payment of hazard insurance premiums.

· Disburses borrower escrow funds to maintain adequate insurance coverage for hazard, fire, flood, wind, and other perils.

· Monitors SFH program claims and distributes claim funds to the customer and vendor and balances weekly deposits against the disbursements for the claims-in-process.

Payment Assistance Analysis

· Obtains and evaluates payment assistance and moratorium applications/renewals to determine eligibility for payment subsidy and moratoriums for SFH Direct customers. Responds to inquiries generated by customers, attorneys, field offices, state offices, headquarters and congressional staff.

· Conducts audits and skip traces of prior subsidy agreements to determine if customers were eligible for and received the correct amount of assistance based on current submitted financial information and household members.

· Provides support and assistance to Rural Development Agency and Rural Development field offices, Area Offices, State Offices, Headquarters, etc., for various SFH payment processing methods.

Special Assistance Support

1. Provides technical loan support and assistance to Rural Development Agency for various SFH payment processing methods as it relates to special loan servicing activities.

2. Assists with resolving delinquency and ensuring successful homeownership by providing the following service options:

· Re-amortization processing

· Providing same rates and terms assumption quotes

· Debt Settlement processing

Cash Management Support

· Plan, organize, direct, and coordinate loan servicing and management reporting activities related to the development, maintenance, and operation of the detail loan servicing and accounting system for direct loans and grants. The borrower detail record and related borrower transactions forms the basis for the accuracy of the Servicing Office financial reports.

· Process a full range of borrower loan servicing accounting transactions and processes for RD direct loans and grants depending on the Program. These transactions include, but are not limited to assumptions, re-amortizations, transfers, consolidations, and payment applications. This also includes discrepancy processing, improper payments, payoff statements, resolving problem cases, preparing audit statements for problem RD accounts, refunds, and changes in application of payments.

· Process changes and reversal/reapplication of posted transactions and executes monetary and non-monetary borrower adjustments, as required for SFH D programs.

· Research and audit complex SFH D borrower account transactions from a variety of sources such as tasks, borrower inquires and external customers (e.g., field and State offices, internal Servicing Office customer, third parties) regarding application of funds.

· Provide support and assistance to Rural Development Agency staff for various SFH D payment processing and posting methods.

· Manage the processes that assure timely and accurate responses to inquires relating to delinquent and non-delinquent SFH D accounts relating to payoff requests, subordinations, payment of delinquent taxes/foreclosure on recapture receivables, recapture receivables, and Rural Housing Trust Loans.

· Respond to inquiries and resolve disputes regarding lien position, lien release, subsidy recapture calculation, Principal Reduction Attributable to Subsidy (PRAS), and servicing of recapture receivable accounts for SFH D accounts. Responses are provided by mail, telephone, video or audio conferencing, automated tracking systems, facsimile and electronic mail.

· Manage the process for SFH D recapture receivable account processing and reporting from beginning to end to ensure the Government’s interest are protected.

**Business Processes, Policies, and Procedures**: Ensure documentation and adherence to established business processes and support development of new procedures.

· Review of the Servicing Office’s administrative policies and documented procedures to maintain alignment with the mission. Incorporate new and updated policies and regulations into existing Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), and shall, where necessary, create new SOPs when the policy or operational change dictates. Perform process assessments to identify and document the gaps and gap level between the as-is and to-be. Recommend process measure identification and implementation techniques that will assure effective outcomes for transformed business processes. Support change management activities that incorporate updating business process re-engineering and operational change, including but not limited to organizational re-design and structure development.

**Communication and Stakeholder Engagement**: Support internal and external communication efforts, including scheduling, documentation, and stakeholder follow-up.

· To support Rural Communities and Rural Development (RD) loan program customers and stakeholders by providing efficient and accurate customer service to all current and delinquent RD Single Family Housing (SFH) loan and grant recipients.

Communication Management

· Manages the development and coordination of Management Information Systems information to determine areas of risk, weaknesses, and process improvements.

· Provides the final authority for credit bureau reporting on a nationwide Rural Development Single Family Housing (SFH) program portfolio to major credit repositories.

Customer Contact

· Provides first line service to approximately 185,000 mortgage loan and grant borrowers as well as third party callers throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Pacific Trust Territories. Act as a customer advocate providing cost-effective service by applying applicable USDA regulations as well as various financial servicing tools including payments subsidies, moratoriums on payments, delinquency workout agreements and other servicing options to keep borrowers in their homes.

· Receives, monitors and tracks over two million inbound inquiries a year by email, phone, task, chat or social media on customer accounts and offers a wide range of services as well as servicing options which include but are not limited to: Customer Initiated Payments, tax/insurance, escrow analysis, payment assistance and interest credit, payoff requests, payment application, year-end statements, moratoriums and re-amortizations, research inquires, treasury offset, bankruptcies, research and disputes. This call volume is largely driven by existing business processes and antiquate IT systems. The vendor should not anticipate this level of volume.

· Provides timely, accurate, and courteous customer service in English and Spanish to borrowers and their agents, and documents pertinent decisions in the accounting system which often requires interfacing with other branches to complete task and ensure compliance.

· Develops, maintains and analyzes standard mortgage industry statistics and production data to management, Head Quarters, USDA as well as stakeholders to identify call trends, volume of inquiries, blocked and abandonment rate, and any potential problems and solutions.

· Analyzes data to develop and implement strategies to improve the delivery of service to our customers. Reports on hourly/daily/weekly and monthly staff productivity and performance of internal management quality control reviews of calls and transactions processed. Evaluates compliance with agency processes and procedures for accuracy.

· Recommends, evaluates, develops, tests, and implements training to enhance and ensure compliance of services, programs for regulatory and agency guidelines, as well as improvement of loan accounting systems and the development of employees. This may include system and telephone upgrades.

· Maintain key services which provide accommodating assistance to customers such as: Braille and Large Print Billing Statements, Teletype (TTY) and Telecommunications Device for the Deaf (TDD), and Interpreters for over 170 languages to assist customers with Limited English Proficiency and/or persons with disabilities.

· Make outbound calls regarding customer accounts and offers a wide range of services as well as servicing options to try to help the borrower cure their delinquency.

· Monitors and tracks all inbound and outbound calls to ensure system functionality and fluid delivery of services. Manage and direct call flows of both English and Spanish queues to ensure sufficient staffing levels to handle call volume.

· Schedules and maintains outbound dialer. Analyze phone campaign metrics to measure effectiveness as it relates to delinquency.

Customer Advocacy

· Receive, research, analyze and respond to complex inquiries from customers, internal and external entities in writing regarding RD loan and grant issues. Participate in the planning, development and executing of the Calendar Year-end Plan and coordination of all year-end activities that impact the RD customer’s 1098 statement for the Servicing Office.

· Perform testing, review, and corrections of customer accounts and Annual Statements of Loan Account and all forms required for the Internal revenue Service (IRS) reporting and ensure protection of Personally Identifiable Information (PII). Performs analytical review of customer accounts and prepares response to customers making procedural changes as needed to ensure proper loan servicing.

· Process a full range of loan servicing and accounting transactions for the SFH loan portfolio. Includes related reviews, discrepancy processing, researching and resolving unique problem cases, processing payment reversal and reapplications, and correcting interest rates.

· Collaborates on system adjustments and restores financial data and coordinates with users, programmers, and contractors in the distribution of files. Performs quality control review and makes final decisions as to the distribution of the files.

· Implement new processes and procedures in conjunction with the system corrections and/or changes.

· Analyze operational processes, customer accounts, and industry standards and takes action to implement changes accordingly. Carryout processes in accordance with applicable laws, and agency regulations and policies relating to consumer credit reporting for SFH direct loan portfolio.

· Manage the processes that ensure timely and accurate responses to inquiries relating to delinquent and non-delinquent SFH D accounts relating to payoff requests and quoting.

Inherently governmental is defined as actions that have a direct impact on the property of private persons, some degree of management and retention of decision-making authority by Federal employees is likely required by the terms of the FAIR Act. These functions include, but are not limited to the following:

· Credit reporting

· IRS reporting

· Congressional Communications

· Performing and Transmitting Treasury Offset

· Debt Settlement

· Administer backup withholding and issues Internal Revenue Service (IRS) W-9 forms to customers in response to the IRS annual CP-2100A Notification to the Agency. Issues copy and corrected IRS Forms to customers.