Summary

Centralizing service for the Farmers Home Administration's (FmHA) single-family housing loans holds promise for improving service while cutting costs. Although FmHA's attempts over the past 5-1/2 years to centralize servicing operations for direct housing loans have not been fruitful, the benefits of centralization outweigh any disadvantages and GAO supports moving ahead with this effort. Centralizing loan servicing activities is consistent with the Agriculture Department's goal of reinventing itself.