20 lenders have committed to ONE

BOSTON, Nov 26, 2013 --- Five months after it was announced that the SoftSecond Loan Program would be transitioning from a two-loan structure to one mortgage, 20 lenders have committed to the new ONE Mortgage Program, 13 are originating loans and the first ONE Mortgage loan has been made.

"The response to the new program has been fantastic," said MHP Homeownership Director Gina Govoni. "Lenders are telling us that the new program is simpler to explain and administer while remaining the most affordable mortgage they can offer their customers."

Thirteen lenders have been trained on the new program's guidelines and systems and are already originating loans: Bay State Savings, Blue Hills Bank, Cambridge Trust, Chelsea Bank, Clinton Savings Bank, Dedham Savings Bank, Eastern Bank, Enterprise Bank, First Citizens Federal Credit Union, Mechanics Cooperative Bank, Santander (formerly Sovereign Bank), The Savings Bank, and the Winchester Coop. The first ONE Mortgage loan, originated by Winchester Coop, closed on August 27.

Seven lenders have committed to the program and expect to be originating loans by late 2013 or early 2014: Boston Private Bank, Citizens Bank, Middlesex Savings Bank, Pilgrim Bank, Rockland Trust, St. Mary’s Credit Union and Freedom Credit Union.

In addition to conducting trainings for lenders and community organizations that counsel and educate first-time homebuyers, brochures have been created in four languages - English, Spanish, Portuguese and Haitian Creole. Loan entry systems on the lender side have been updated and a mobile application version of the homebuyer calculator will debut later this year.

The shift from SoftSecond to ONE comes after several years of careful discussions with lenders, community groups and borrowers about how to update SoftSecond while maintaining it as the most affordable, safe and secure option for low- and moderate-income first-time homebuyers. Created in 1991 by lenders, community groups, the state and MHP to address discriminatory home lending practices in certain Boston neighborhoods, SoftSecond was soon taken statewide and has helped over 17,000 low- and moderate-income families purchase their first home.

The result of these discussions with program partners was to transition SoftSecond from two mortgages to one mortgage to make the program simpler for borrowers to understand and easier for financial institutions to underwrite and administer. The one-loan structure also makes the program's loans more amenable for sale to the secondary market.

"What we are trying to do is make the program a better fit for lenders and the current state of bank regulations, but still close to what it was for the borrower in terms of affordability," said Govoni.

The ONE Mortgage Program received a key exemption this past spring when the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ruled that ONE and programs like it would be exempt from new federal "ability to repay" rules, which allow a borrower to sue a bank if he or she alleges that the lender knowingly made a loan the borrower could not repay. By exempting programs like ONE, lenders who make these loans won't have to worry about this additional liability.

To obtain brochures, set up a training or get more information about how your organization can offer the ONE Mortgage Program, contact MHP's Homeownership Department at 1-800-752-7131 or onemortgage@mhp.net.