Escrow Services

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Rural Development is conducting market research through a Sources Sought Notice to identify qualified vendors capable of providing nationwide escrow sub-servicing for its Direct Single-Family Housing (Section 502 Direct) loan portfolio, which includes approximately 132,000 loans serving over 105,600 borrowers, with 96% of the portfolio escrowed for taxes and insurance. The solicitation, identified by number 12C0BA26R0002 and posted on April 30, 2026, seeks responses by May 7, 2026, to assess industry capabilities and determine the viability of awarding an Indefinite-Delivery, Indefinite-Quantity (IDIQ) contract. The contract will require contractors to manage escrow accounts across all 50 states and U.S. territories, ensuring timely disbursement of tax and insurance payments, processing refunds and returned payments, maintaining a call center with performance benchmarks including an Average Speed to Answer under 60 seconds and an abandonment rate no higher than 5%, and delivering 19 required reports—including monthly performance, risk logs, and loss claims status—in specified electronic formats such as PDF, Excel, or CSV. Performance must adhere to strict compliance standards outlined in USDA Handbook HB-2-3550, 7 CFR Part 3550, and federal regulations including the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act, Government Paperwork Elimination Act, and NIST SP 800-88 for data sanitization. All work must be performed within the United States, and contractor personnel must obtain Public Trust clearance within 30 days, with access to systems and data contingent upon successful clearance. Key personnel including the Project Manager, Chief Legal Counsel, Relationship Manager, and Business Manager require prior government approval for substitution and must meet minimum experience thresholds. Subcontractors are subject to full flow-down of contractual obligations and are prohibited from engaging directly with USDA or making policy decisions without written authorization. Contractor systems must integrate with USDA’s UNIFI and Sagent platforms, be FedRAMP authorized, and support end-to-end security for personally identifiable information. Proposals must be submitted via email in Word or PDF formats, not exceeding 15 pages, and must not include cost information, as awards will be based solely on technical capability, past performance, quality assurance planning, and compliance with service-level metrics, following a best-value trade-off approach under