The Federal Housing Finance Agency said it's finalizing its standardized loan data reporting requirements for newly originated Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages, National Mortgage News reported April 4.

Beginning April 23, lenders will have the option of submitting new Uniform Loan Delivery Dataset files to Fannie and Freddie; the new format will become mandatory July 23. The FHFA previously had expected to implement ULDD requirements in March before pushing the date back to July, National Mortgage News reported.

ULDD is one of the initiatives included in the Uniform Mortgage Data Program, which is intended to streamline Fannie and Freddie loan and appraisal data collection. ULDD files will solely be comprised of upfront data, replacing the existing 2,000-character flat files that Fannie and Freddie currently require from their lenders.

On March 19, another UMDP initiative — the Uniform Appraisal Dataset — became mandatory. UAD is a new electronic system that Fannie and Freddie use to collect appraisal reports on all residential mortgage originations.