Writing about standards in the mortgage industry, Matt Seu puts his finger on two complementary forces that any standards movement needs if it is to be successful – that is, get implemented widely.
First is the “army of volunteers”. To build a robust, credible standard, you need to tap the expertise of people across the domain. ACORD standards for example, are created by the industry, for the industry. In the mortgage world, the equivalent standard comes from MISMO (Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization).
Second, you need a core group of industry players who decide to take the standard and run with it. In the mortgage world, this happened with the Uniform Mortgage Data Program (UMDP), when “FHFA, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac decided that it was their mission to standardize data transfers among the primary markets and the GSEs [government-sponsored enterprises]”. In insurance, the most recent example of such leadership has been the Ruschlikon project.
Success with standards won’t follow from regulatory fiat. Nor will it be supplier-led. Authorities and vendors can encourage and facilitate standards adoption, but they can’t lead. It’s got to be an alliance between the domain experts – the people who know the persistent pain points in the business, and the top business management – the people who are responsible for securing a prosperous future for the stakeholders in the sector. Mortgage
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