Rules and regulations for mortgage lenders continue to evolve, and a host of mortgage service providers are eager to help lenders comply without slowing down operations. One firm is filling a gap that opened up when the Federal Housing Administration stopped providing handbooks. Meanwhile, the nation’s new financial services regulator is moving forward with rules and procedures.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Tuesday issued a statement asking for public feedback on two alternative prototype disclosures that integrate the federal Truth in Lending Disclosure and the HUD-1 Settlement Statement. The latest renditions of the disclosures followed feedback from more than 24,000 people.
Including other disclosures that are being consolidated, unnecessary paperwork is being cut by as much as half, according to the agency.
On Monday, the CFPB disclosed that its Office of Enforcement plans to warn financial service providers, in some cases, before it recommends the commencement of enforcement proceedings. The firms will have the opportunity to provide a written statement that addresses potential violations.
No warning will be given in some cases, however, such as those involving fraud or when the regulator needs to act quickly. The primary focus of the response should be legal and relative policy matters, and submissions may be discoverable by third parties.
The CFPB in July published for public comment an interim final rule establishing Regulation D, Alternative Mortgage Transaction Parity as required under the Alternative Mortgage Transaction Parity Act and TIL. Without the interim final rule, state housing creditors would no longer be able to make adjustable-rate mortgages and other alternative transactions.
Last month, the Department of Veterans Affairs asked lenders not to submit payments on loans closed on or after Oct. 1 because it was waiting for H.R. 2646, Veterans Health Facilities Act Capital Improvement Act of 2011, to be signed by President Obama. VA said that the legislation was signed by Obama on Oct. 5 and issued new funding fees.
“VA believes it likely that Congress will pass other legislation in the coming weeks that will make additional changes to the funding fee structure,” a bulletin said.
FHA announced that its online handbooks are no longer available. So AllRegs said that it has made the handbooks available for free online for a limited time. Users can sign up for the publications at www.allregsmortgage.com.
AllRegs, a MortgageDaily.com advertiser, said that available publications include all FHA handbooks and archival copies of FHA guides such as linked mortgagee letters. The handbooks are part of the Single-Family Lending Standard Package from the Eagan, Minn.-based service provider.
Policy and procedure manual templates written by industry experts were released by AllRegs last month. At the time, 20 manuals had been authored and more were in development. Delivered in WORD format, the manuals are customizable. Available manuals cover appraiser independence, FHA delegation and loans repurchases and rescission. Advertising, wholesale lending and Servicemembers Civil Relief Act manuals are also among the offerings.
Earlier this year, AllRegs released a maintenance plan for its policy and procedure manual series that provides updates for policy manual templates. The annual subscription cost for each manual is $95. Manuals are available on anti-predatory lending, broker quality-control plans and conforming agency quality control. Also on the menu are loan officer compensation, consumer privacy and SAFE Act policy.
In October, Ellie Mae announced that its Total Quality Loan program can be customized by investors. The program is a set of Ellie Mae and third-party services and technologies that enhance quality and compliance for loans originated through its flagship loan platform, Encompass360.
“When lenders can match a loan to the investor’s quality requirements throughout the origination process, there’s less quality control work required by the investor, fewer duplicate services to be reordered, and ultimately, a higher salability factor for the lender,” Ellie Chief Strategy Officer Jonathan Corr explained in the statement.
The Total Quality Loan program was originally announced in May.
Loantech LLC reported last week that a sample of 100 forensic loan audits determined that 53 percent of loans originated between 2003 and 2008 were either illegal or contained inaccurate disclosures in violation of federal laws. The mortgage software provider noted that nearly a quarter of the disclosures had inaccurate annual percentage rates or finance charge figures.
In October, ClosingCorp announced the launch of its SmartGFE 2.0, which it claims requires very little interaction from loan officers. This second version of the service eliminates the need for loan originators to make decisions and manually input information already existing in a loan file.
A month earlier, ClosingCorp said that the SmartGFE was available for wholesale and correspondent lending.
Compliance Systems Inc. said in September that its IntelleDoc Solutions was selected by Lender Processing Services Inc. for its InSync offering.
