The MISMO Business Rules Exchange Workgroup (BREW) has been chartered to develop, promote, and maintain voluntary electronic commerce standards for the exchange of business rules for the mortgage industry.

The High Level Goal

Provide the mortgage industry an option for communicating business rules up and down the mortgage process in a software friendly format (XML) as opposed to by fax, pdf, U.S. Mail, web page, or other mechanisms. This is going to be accomplished using one of the existing or emerging rule exchange specifications at the W3C, OMG, or other open specification.

The Business Case

The business rules exchange workgroup is trying working to make all participants in the mortgage process more efficient and agile by automating the exchanging of business rules. The mortgage process today is a complex service chain of software applications. Many of these applications have dependencies on participants up and down the mortgage service chain. For example, investor requirements dictated in the secondary market have a direct impact on the eligibility requirements in origination. These investor requirements are manually delivered today and then transformed into rules within the upstream software applications. By utilizing the Business Rules Exchange specification these investor rules can be expressed in XML and consumed in real time by participating systems. This translates into a more efficient and agile business models for all participants.

How to Participate

Get involved by joining the Business Rules Exchange mailing list and participate in conference calls and listserv discussions about the exchange of business rules.

Visit the Listserv Sign Up page to sign up for the BREW listserv.

Who Should Participate in the Business Rules Exchange Workgroup?

• Lenders
• Mortgage related service providers
• MBS Investors
• Rules Engine Vendors
• Any company who is involved in the mortgage process

The Scope of the Business Rules Exchange Workgroup

Even as business rules can involve a vast array of domain action, BREW’s scope will stay within the confines of business rules which need to be shared (or exchanged or interchanged) among partners. This scope section covers what is “in scope”, as well as what is “out of scope” for the workgroup. The first item of in-scope, “capturing use cases and scenarios” will set the precedent for the group’s remaining in-scope items. The items considered “out of scope” offer a reference point for further investigation if one so desires. Additionally, BREW’s scope could be refined as well as redefined as new use cases and scenarios are identified or existing ones evolve. The work group will study existing standards and standardizing efforts within the W3C, OMG, OASIS, and related organizations as to make a qualified decision for supporting the business requirements derived from the use cases.

Specifications Currently Under Consideration by the Business Rules Exchange Workgroup

The Business Rules Exchange Workgroup is currently considering the following specifications:

• Resource Description Language (RDF)
• Rule Markup Language (RuleML)
• Rule Interchange Format (RIF)
• Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Business Rules (SBVR)
• Production Rules Representation (PRR)
• XBRL

The Business Rules Exchange workgroup is focused on exchanges of XML representations of rules within the mortgage industry. The following mind map was created to help illustrate the consumers and producers of rules throughout the entire mortgage process.

It should be noted that the existence of a producer and consumer of rules does not necessarily mean that there will be a rule exchange between their systems but indicates that there is the opportunity for a rule exchange. Ultimately it is up to the partners and systems involved to identify where an XML rule exchange would be most productive.

FAQ

Visit the Business Rules FAQ page for additional information.