Mortgage brokers and lenders will have more time to comply with a new Red Flags Rule designed to reduce mortgage fraud, though a number of services have emerged to help ensure compliance. Two companies are touting technology that helps wholesale and retail lenders comply with requirements under a new appraisal ordering code.
Enforcement of the Red Flags Rule has been postponed until May 1, 2009, by the Federal Trade Commission, a statement last week said. The move was made to give lenders, financial institutions and mortgage brokers additional time in which to develop and implement written identity theft prevention programs.
“The Red Flags Rule was developed pursuant to the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003,” the FTC explained. “Under the rule, financial institutions and creditors with covered accounts must have identity theft prevention programs to identify, detect and respond to patterns, practices or specific activities that could indicate identity theft.”
The Office of Thrift Supervision issued examination procedures based on the FACT Act, a bulletin Friday said. FACT Act rules require financial institutions and creditors to establish a written identity theft prevention program and develop and implement policies and procedures for handling notices of address discrepancies.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said earlier this month that it is issuing new Fair Credit Reporting Act examination procedures for rules addressing affiliate marketing, identity-theft red flags and address discrepancies. The new examination procedures will be incorporated into an update to the OCC’s handbook series when all of the FCRA examination procedures have been completed.
DataVerify said last week that it has added a new underwriting guideline rules matrix for FACT Act requirements to its fraud detection and prevention platform. The update to its loan processing platform provides comprehensive results that incorporate clear and easy-to-understand red flag indicators.
The Federal Reserve Board said last week that as of Oct. 1, 2009, loans will need to be reported under Regulation C if the annual percentage rate is at least 1.5 percent higher than in Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey on first liens. On subordinate liens, spreads of at least 3.5% over survey rates will require reporting. By moving from comparable Treasury yields to Freddie’s mortgage survey rates, the Fed hopes to better exclude prime loans from reporting.
An interface with ComplianceOne will enable Cardinal/400 Core System users to transfer data — eliminating redundant data entry and reducing associated errors, an announcement yesterday said. The move links Cardinal customers with compliance content for 51 U.S. jurisdictions.
Wolters Kluwer Financial Services, the developer of the Cardinal system, said Thursday that it now offers compliance management software for financial institutions. The new service includes professional risk management services for government lending and reverse mortgages.
Wolters Kluwer also noted last week that its document services platform has been integrated with Tavant Technologies’ point-of-sale solution suite. Through the integration, Tavant customers can digitally deliver compliance documents and disclosures to borrowers for electronic signatures.
Mortgage Cadence announced last week that it implemented its Finale offering at Senior Lending Network. The Finale team works in conjunction with compliance attorneys Weiner Brodsky Sidman Kider PC to provide a full range of superior legal services and guidance in areas including due diligence, FHA/VA/GNMA and federal and state regulatory compliance.
Compliance EAGLE has been integrated into OpenClose’s loan origination software, a press release last week said. The integration enables OpenClose users to run residential mortgage loan applications through multiple compliance service checks, including the Truth in Lending Act, Home Mortgage Disclosure Act and Fannie Mae’s proprietary 5 percent tests.
The upcoming release of Mercury Network version 3.0 will help wholesale lenders comply with new requirements of the Home Valuation Code of Conduct, according to an announcement last week. The new features include a black-box appraisal selection and double-blind communication system — helping to shield lenders from risk by prohibiting influence by loan production staff while still allowing for control of the appraisal ordering process.
ServiceLink said last week that it valuation and technology services have been enhanced to ensure that loan originators and other interested parties are not permitted to select or contact the appraiser or influence the value in any way. Its services can be utilized as a traditional outsourced vendor management solution or with ServiceLink handling management responsibilities and oversight for a lender’s existing appraiser panel.
The board of directors of the American Association of Residential Mortgage Regulators has approved the use of automated examinations, ComplianceEase announced last week. AARMR reportedly selected ComplianceAnalyzer and RegulatorConnect, enabling regulated mortgage brokers, lenders and servicers to digitally transfer loan information to regulators.
“The ComplianceAnalyzer system enables regulators to unify oversight in ways that were not possible with previous manual examination processes,” the announcement said. “The system provides examiners with detailed loan-level audit reports that encompass federal, state and municipal ‘high-cost / predatory’ and ‘rate spread’ regulations as well as license-driven state consumer credit compliance reviews of usury and interest rate limits, late charges, prepayment penalties, and allowable fees and charges.”
An announcement earlier this month indicated ComplianceAnalyzer had been integrated into the MIRACLE ONLINE documentation preparation system — enabling automated compliance auditing for closing documents at no extra charge.
