To bolster some much-needed credibility and quality assurance for consumers seeking appraisals, the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau should set minimum standards for states to apply in registering appraisal management companies, a recent Government Accountability Office report said. “Partly in reaction to appraiser independence requirements, lenders have increasingly relied upon AMCs to perform certain functions,” the GAO observed. “Despite the increased use of AMCs, direct federal oversight of AMCs is limited because ...

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Associate Director Raj Date told lawmakers earlier this month that mortgage servicing will be one of the CFPB’s priorities as soon as it’s open for business. In particular, Date told lawmakers at a joint hearing of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations and the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit that the agency will begin addressing two structural problems in the mortgage servicing market, one of which is that the vast majority of borrowers do not get to choose their mortgage servicer...

The controversial Consumer Financial Protection Bureau plans to hit the ground running with bank supervision and examination when its doors officially open for business on July 21, even though there will be no Senate-confirmed director in place as of kick-off. “The new consumer agency is here to make sure that markets work for American families, and our bank supervision program is a big part of that,” said Elizabeth Warren, special advisor to the secretary of the Treasury on the CFPB. “Starting on July 21, we will be a cop on the beat – examining banks and protecting consumers.”...

Lawmakers and regulators seem increasingly cognizant of the potential their actions to improve mortgage servicing may have to exacerbate the difficult environment servicers are confronting in terms of helping struggling homeowners, unclogging the backlog of housing inventory and complying with all necessary laws and regulations in the process. Industry representatives hope that awareness will keep policymakers from going overboard, but they remain anxious while multiple sets of potentially inconsistent and conflicting servicing standards are in play...

Mortgage servicers that have not yet contemplated adjusting their practices to conform to the principles illustrated in the consent decrees federal regulators issued earlier this year against 14 top servicers, as well as the June 30 guidance from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, better think again, and quickly, a leading industry attorney is recommending. “I think the OCC’s guidance is a clear statement of regulator expectations as to the performance of bank servicers, both in terms of looking back and addressing past issues and in creating an appropriate compliance structure going forward,” Andrew Sandler, chairman of the BuckleySandler law firm, told Inside Regulatory Strategies. “The expectation should be that other regulators, including the Federal Reserve and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, will have very similar sets of expectations.”..

The Department of Housing and Urban Development announced settlements last week with two mortgage lending-related entities over alleged violations of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act having to do with affiliates and fees. In one case, HUD alleged that title company Fidelity National Financial Inc., through its subsidiaries, paid fees for the referral of settlement service business in violation of Section 8 of RESPA...

Democrat Sens. Tom Carper (Delaware) and Mark Warner (Virginia), the authors of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act’s preemption amendment, recently wrote Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, expressing surprise and disappointment at the Treasury’s interpretation of the provision. Earlier in the month, George Madison, the Treasury’s general counsel, wrote to the OCC to comment on the agency’s proposed rule on federal preemption, saying that Dodd-Frank’s preemption provision does not uphold the Barnett standard...

Nevada. Assembly Bill 77 was recently signed into law, revising a number of provisions governing mortgage lending and the conduct and supervision of related professionals (escrow agents and agencies, mortgage bankers, brokers and agents, etc.), and providers of certain covered services... North Carolina. House Bill 312 was approved, amending the methods for recording a satisfaction of a security instrument with the register of deeds. It also clarifies the requirements for electronically registering plats with the register of deeds, and amends restrictions on access to military discharge documents recorded with the register of deeds. The majority of the bill becomes effective Oct. 1, 2011...

Office of the Comptroller of the CurrencyFederal Deposit Insurance Corp.Federal Reserve Top servicers submit remedial foreclosure plans. Top mortgage servicers Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Ally Financial, U.S. Bank, Sun Trust, OneWest Bank, PNC Bank, MetLife Bank, HSBC Bank, Aurora Bank, EverBank and Sovereign submitted their foreclosure practices remedial plans to the OCC, the FDIC and the Fed last week. However, some of the servicers told Inside Regulatory Strategies their plans were confidential documents and would not disclose them. An OCC official said there are no plans for the agency to release the plans or to summarize their contents...