Metro 2 Account Type Code 26: Conventional Real-Estate Mortgage (Purchase-Money First)

Specification

Code	26
Meaning	Conventional Real-Estate Mortgage (Purchase-Money First)
Field	Account Type (Field 15)
Record	Base Segment
Length / position	2 chars · 84–85
Category	Mortgage and Real Estate
CRRG reference	CRRG Exhibits 1 & 2 (Account Type Codes)

Conventional means no federal insurance or guaranty. Loans sold to the government-sponsored enterprises are still conventional.
Purchase-money first indicates the intended lien position and origination purpose: a first lien taken to acquire the property. A rate-and-term refinance of such a loan is normally still reported here, and consistency across the portfolio matters more than the label.
Does NOT cover a junior lien. A second mortgage has its own code in this set and misclassifying it hides the lien structure from anyone reading the file.
Does NOT cover an equity line the borrower can redraw. That is a line-of-credit product secured by the home.
Does NOT cover FHA, VA, or USDA loans. Those carry 19, 25, and 2C respectively, and reporting them as conventional is a common boarding-data error.

1A mortgage servicer reports a 30-year fixed conventional first mortgage on an owner-occupied home.
2A lender reports a 15-year conventional refinance of a prior first mortgage, with the prior loan reporting paid.
3A credit union reports a portfolio-held conventional first lien it never sold.
4A servicer reports a conventional loan carrying private mortgage insurance, which does not change the account type.
5A servicer reports a conventional first mortgage on an investment property, with the occupancy expressed in the K3 property indicator rather than in Account Type.

Populate the K3 segment. Mortgage type and property indicator are the fields that carry lien position and occupancy.
Do not use 26 as a catch-all for any real-estate loan. Use the government codes when the programme applies and the junior-lien code when the lien is subordinate.
Keep Account Type 26 through modification, forbearance, foreclosure, and deficiency reporting.
Report private mortgage insurance, if at all, outside the account type. PMI does not make a loan government insured.
When servicing transfers, the receiving servicer must board the same account type and the transferring servicer closes with a zero balance.

A file can be structurally valid and still be wrong. These are the cross-field conditions Account Type Code 26 has to satisfy.

Portfolio Type must be M (Mortgage). Portfolio Type M is where the K3 segment becomes relevant, carrying mortgage identification number, mortgage type, and property indicator.
Portfolio Type M requires Scheduled Monthly Payment Amount and a numeric Terms Duration in months, typically 180, 240, or 360.
Credit Limit must be zero-filled. A home-equity line is a different code with a real limit.
Highest Credit / Original Loan Amount carries the original principal balance and does not move as the loan amortizes or is modified.
Terms Frequency is normally M, with B valid on biweekly payment programmes.
On foreclosure, Account Status changes while Account Type stays 26, and Date of First Delinquency must already be populated and must not be re-aged by a modification.
A co-borrower is carried in ECOA with a J1 (same address) or J2 (different address) segment.