3 security concerns when working with third-party vendors

This article reinforces title agent concerns about lender attitudes toward their vendors.

As more lenders turn to third parties, regulators are emphasizing the importance of gauging the potential risks involved.

“You have to assess not only the vendor; you may also have to assess the vendor’s relationships. Some of these third parties have connections to other institutions and servicers,” Comptroller of the Currency Thomas Curry said in a speech to the Independent Community Bankers of America.

Read the full article here

3 security concerns when working with third-party vendors

The ALTA® Board of Governors approved recommendations for new forms

The ALTA® Board of Governors approved recommendations to adopt 2 new endorsements and make revisions to 2 closing protection letters and a short form policy during a meeting on February 20, 2014.  -

The current ALTA Closing Protection Letter has been modified to clarify that coverage does not extend to loss arising out of federal consumer protection laws, nor for loss arising out of laws pertaining to securitization, including exemption from credit risk retention.

Tax Credit Endorsements were also added

The current ALTA Closing Protection Letter – Single Transaction (12-1-11) has been modified to clarify that coverage does not extend to loss arising out of federal consumer protection laws, as defined in 12 U.S.C. §5481 (14), the ability to repay, truth-in-lending or other federal or state consumer protection or predatory lending laws, nor for loss arising out of laws pertaining to securitization, including exemption from credit risk retention. – See more at: http://www.alta.org/forms/formsnews.cfm#sthash.8386Tqdc.dpuf

See more here

The ALTA® Board of Governors approved recommendations to adopt 2 new endorsements and make revisions to 2 closing protection letters and a short form policy during a meeting on February 20, 2014.  – See more at: http://www.alta.org/forms/formsnews.cfm#sthash.8386Tqdc.dpuf

The ALTA® Board of Governors approved recommendations for new forms

CFPB continues RESPA enforcement with action against nonbank lender - Lexology

On February 24, the CFPB announced that a nonbank mortgage lender agreed to pay an $83,000 penalty to resolve violations of RESPA’s Section 8. The lender primarily offers loss-mitigation refinance mortgage loans to distressed borrowers. According to the consent order, after the lender ceased obtaining funding for its loans from two subsidiaries of a hedge fund, the lender continued to split loss-mitigation and origination fees with the subsidiaries on 83 additional loans originated over an eight-month period, even though neither subsidiary provided financing or any other service in any of those transactions

Read the full article here

CFPB continues RESPA enforcement with action against nonbank lender – Lexology.

CFPB continues RESPA enforcement with action against nonbank lender - Lexology

Free Webinar on upcoming challenges and how to Adapt

Tuesday, December 17, 2013
2:00 p.m. EST – 3:00 p.m. EST (11:00 a.m. PST — 12:00 p.m. PST)
No cost to register.
Join us for a webinar presentation which frames the changes about to affect your agency, and provides ways you can adapt right now.
Moderators:

Rick Diamond, Vice President of I.T., Agency Operations, WFG National Title Insurance Company

Charles Cain, SVP, Agency, Midwest, WFG National Title Insurance Company

What your agency did to be successful in the past will likely not be enough to succeed in 2014 and beyond.  Regulatory changes, market shifts and new client demands all mean that title agents will have to reconsider the way they do business…and soon.   On December 17, join us to consider some of the new challenges emerging for title agents as well as two real solutions available to WFG agents. 

• How does your agency ensure data security as will be required by the CFPB and your lending clients?  To what extent does your e-mail need to be encrypted?  Is your firewall adequate?  How secure is your network, and is that secure enough?


• Will your methods for ensuring data integrity—especially where inaccurate data could negatively affect closing tolerance–meet the standards required by your lenders?


• How does an agent undertake the very real operational changes that will be required by lenders, underwriters and enforcement agencies while maintaining his or her margins?


• Are your settlement, closing and even recording procedures in line with new consumer protection requirements?

 

This is a free webinar open to title agents, settlement services professionals, real estate attorneys and industry executives who take their operations practices and compliance strategies seriously.   Expect future seminars on topics of interest to you from WFG National Title Insurance Company, a partner and trusted resource for title agents nationwide.
Click here to register.
The Title Advisor series is a webinar series provided as a complimentary resource for agents and partners of WFG National Title Insurance Company.  Each month, WFG will provide top experts to discuss subjects of relevance for title agents and settlement services providers:

• Growth Strategies:  Revenue streams, product strategy, marketing and sales


• Market Trends:  Big picture overview of the industry and market strategy


• Compliance Trends:  Legislative, regulatory and litigation updates and tools for compliance


• Production and Ops Practices:  Technology, streamlining efficiencies, general operations and strategies for improving production and delivery of product


• Title 101:  Basic training for entry and mid-level title professionals.


• Town Hall:  Tell us what’s on your mind. How can we be of service, and what issues can we help you face?

 

To learn more about WFG National Title, or to learn about future installments of The Title Advisor Series, go to www.WFGNationalTitle.com.

Free Webinar on upcoming challenges and how to Adapt

Emerging Settlement Best Practice (CFPB)

Click Here to Enroll

This is no secret: The Consumer Finance Protection Board (“CFPB”) has been and will continue to promulgate increasingly tight compliance rules for lenders as well as the settlement industry. This is not only a predictable trend towards transparency-oriented records/corporate compliance a la Sarbanes/Oxley but more recently the passage of Dodd-Frank designed to bind and keep lenders (especially) in line with sound lending practices.

As we all know, these compliance systems and practices are also designed to protect all of us—the consumer and the title companies– against the incredible and growing amount of fraud in the title industry. That issue, of course, provides enough material for another seminar entirely. For now, we’ll focus on these “best practices,” which ALTA developed and published, in part, to establish a “benchmark” for the mortgage and real estate settlement industry. In developing these best practices, ALTA seeks to guide its membership the best procedures to protect consumers, promote quality service, provide for ongoing employee training and meet both legal and market demands.

We’ll first review ALTA’s Best Practices (Fall 2012) in some detail and conclude by discussing how you can improve your business not only through compliance (“best practices”) but through outreach and education programs for your REALTOR®s and loan officers. The work of bringing transactions together has always been, and perhaps now more than ever, the result of the cooperative and effective work of many team players in the real estate industry. As always, the need for excellent professional relationships too couldn’t be higher.

Expert

Ann L. Johnston, Esq.
admin@learntitle.com

Ann is an attorney and a REALTOR® with over 26 years of experience in law practice (including especially insurance defense and risk management issues), title law and the real estate sales industry. She is licensed as a settlement agent and real estate salesperson in Virginia and as an attorney in the District of Columbia and North Carolina. Ann is currently working as Director of Professional Development at Monarch Title in McLean. She most recently served as Assistant General Counsel for Long & Foster Real Estate, Inc. for almost 6 years where she developed a wide range of business and legal expertise pertaining to the practice of real estate professionals. She earned both her BA in English and her Juris Doctor from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Click Here to Enroll

Emerging Settlement Best Practice (CFPB)

Regulatory Compliance Guidelines

Preparing to meet your regulatory compliance guidelines doesn’t need to be difficult.  Title agents, settlement service providers, and third party venders can pick and choose from any of the following assessment, implementation, and remediation services.

ALTA Best Practices Assessments | mycloudstar.com.

Regulatory Compliance Guidelines

CFPB mortgage implementation readiness guide

I got this from Greg at Cloudstar Consulting. Follow Greg on Twitter at @titleTechnology.

201307_cfpb_mortgage-implementation-readiness-guide.pdf

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CFPB mortgage implementation readiness guide

U.S. consumer bureau’s first criminal referral is a warning for regulated banks | Financial Regulatory Forum

This kind of action by the CFPB will motivate banks to vet their service providers.  This particular action did not involve a title agency but I can see by extension, that title companies will come under the same scrutiny.

“Paul Schieber, a shareholder at the law firm Stevens & Lee, said banks who work with unregulated financial companies needed to carry out thorough checks on their partners past behavior to avoid being on the wrong end of an enforcement action.”

U.S. consumer bureau’s first criminal referral is a warning for regulated banks | Financial Regulatory Forum.

U.S. consumer bureau’s first criminal referral is a warning for regulated banks | Financial Regulatory Forum