When Ginnie Mae published the Ginnie Mae 2020 policy and program white paper two years ago, the agency delivered a modernization roadmap that included waypoints for how it would create a stronger, more efficient and more secure technology platform to conduct business with MBS program participants. A key point of that roadmap was the MyGinnieMae (MGM) Portal, a robust online interface that would keep pace with evolving technologies in use by Issuers, servicers, document custodians and other participants in the government mortgage market.
Ginnie Mae piloted MGM in 2019 by inviting select Multifamily, HECM and Single-Family Issuers, and Document Custodians. This early phase allowed Ginnie Mae to work through the natural hiccups that occur when new technology is introduced into a process that becomes nearly second nature to customers. The pilot phase included focus groups with users, and Ginnie Mae incorporated their feedback and recommendations into the portal’s next and larger phase. How to organize and define functional roles within the portal was just one of the suggestions that bubbled up during the pilot phase.
The broader onboarding phase launched in January 2020, led by a Modernization outreach call, enhanced by Reporting and Feedback System eNotifications, and eventually MyGinnieMae messages. The first step began with equipping Organization Administrators (formerly known as Security Officers and Enrollment Administrators) with the knowledge they needed to assign the proper functional roles to their staff who will work within the Portal. Assigning these roles was critical because everything from issuance of mortgage-backed securities, pool certification, pool transfers to managing of Master Agreements is done within the Portal.
We knew that we had to engage customers in multiple ways to ensure that we connected with the right staff at our customers’ organizations. To do this, we utilized a “more is better” approach with our communications. Communications included emails from the Ginnie Mae Customer Experience Group (CXG) to Organization Administrators inviting them to create an MGM account, and notes from Ginnie Mae Account Executives to their customers. We also conducted on-site outreach during the 2019 Ginnie Mae Summit, giving Issuers and other customers the chance to ask questions about the general MGM adoption strategy scheduled for the beginning of 2020.
Those communications provided a schedule for upcoming training events on how to use the Portal. The series of online training events were designed for each type of organization that would use MGM. We began our first online training with Multifamily Issuers, progressing to single-family Issuers with large portfolios, then HECM Issuers, followed by smaller single-family Issuers and finishing with Document Custodians. More than one dozen online training sessions were held via Webex and Zoom, producing more than 24 hours of recorded training material, all of which is available from Ginniemae.gov, and the Ginnie Mae YouTube channel.
Archiving training videos gives customers who bring on new staff on-demand access to the information they will need to learn how to do business with Ginnie Mae, saving the customer time and cost.
We anticipate that all users of Ginnie Mae business applications will complete transition to the MyGinnieMae Portal by late-summer. Meanwhile, it’s important that organization administrators ensure that their users have been assigned the appropriate functional roles in the Portal by the implementation date. Assigning functional roles and being trained on how to use MGM is critical because the ability to use legacy credentials to access Ginnie Mae systems will expire. Without appropriate MGM credentials, customers will not be able to do business with Ginnie Mae.
Organization Administrators that require assistance may contact Ginnie Mae Customer Support at 1-833-GNMA HELP / 1-833-466-2435 or ginniemae1@bnymellon.com. For general inquiries regarding MyGinnieMae onboarding, training, and resources, contact the Ginnie Mae Customer Experience Group at cxg@hud.gov.