RamQuest-eLynx Integration Enhances TRID Compliance with Automated Data Flow Between Lenders and Settlement Agents. Texas-based RamQuest, a provider of comprehensive title and settlement services solutions, and Ohio-based eLynx, a provider of on-demand web-based compliance services, recently announced a product/service synchronization to help lender and settlement agent clients comply with the CFPB’s integrated disclosure rule known as TRID. “The integration enables lenders utilizing eLynx’s Expedite ID compliance solution to exchange property, fee and loan data electronically with thousands of settlement service providers using RamQuest,” the companies said. “This bi-directional exchange of data simplifies the collaboration required for lenders to generate the Closing Disclosure mandated by the TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure rule.” ...

Candidate Clinton Wants to Defend the CFPB. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in a neck-and-neck race for the Democratic Party’s nomination for the White House with independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, vowed recently to defend the CFPB. In a package of proposals dubbed “Breaking Every Barrier Agenda: Revitalizing the Economy in Communities Left Behind,” the candidate said she believes “we must never again allow borrowers to be taken advantage of in the rush for corporate profits.” Clinton also pointed out that prior to the financial crisis, she pledged to create a Financial Product Safety Commission, as a counterpart to the CFPB, to crack down on abusive and predatory lenders and to protect consumers. ...

House Approves Legislation Streamlining FHA Condo Rules, Allowing DE Lenders for USDA. Housing reform legislation that would ease FHA restrictions on condominium financing and allow delegation of loan approval authority to qualified lenders under the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s rural housing programs passed the House last week by a vote of 427-0. Described as an FHA reform bill, H.R. 3700, the “Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act,” would modify FHA requirements for condo mortgages by streamlining FHA’s project certification requirements to qualify condominiums for FHA financing as well as making recertification less burdensome. H.R. 3700 would also expand the USDA’s Section 502 Guaranteed Rural Housing Loan Program for single families by delegating loan-approval authority to certain participating lenders. FHA and VA loan programs already ...

Normally during this time of year, the mergers and acquisitions game is somewhat quiet in the mortgage industry, but concerns over compliance with the CFPB’s integrated disclosure rule known as TRID are sparking some lenders to consider selling and getting out. That’s the opinion of Chuck Klein, managing partner of Mortgage Banking Solutions, who said, “I’m as busy as I’ve ever been this time of year.” Speaking on the Internet radio program “Lykken on Lending” recently, the M&A advisor noted that mortgage company owners are “disturbed about the cost and risk of noncompliance.” He added that the TRID rule promulgated by the CFPB “has gotten everyone’s attention,” in particular, owners of nonbanks who have all their personal net worth tied ...

Remember the Dec. 29, 2015, “clarifying letter” that CFPB Director Richard Cordray sent to the Mortgage Bankers Association? Initially, the letter relieved industry anxiety regarding TRID errors, at least to some degree. But over the past few weeks, certain lenders have once again grown nervous and are reporting resistance by secondary market investors that are turning down their mortgages because of TRID errors. For loan buyers, the issue is assignee liability. The MBA is believed to be a key player trying to persuade the bureau to publish the letter in the Federal Register. An industry lobbyist noted that one week after the clarifying letter came to light, MBA “applied immediate pressure to get the letter into Register form. The CFPB ...

Last month’s issuance by the CFPB of a request for information (RFI) regarding its Home Mortgage Disclosure Act resubmission guidelines likely reflects the bureau’s recognition of the additional workload the pending new rule represents, as well as a willingness to hear what the industry has to say about it.In October 2015, the bureau finalized its rule updating the reporting requirements under its HMDA rule, which will significantly expand the amount of information lenders will submit to the agency. “Given these changes, the current resubmission guidelines may need to be updated, and the bureau is seeking feedback on what modifications may be appropriate,” the agency said in early January. But in a recent online blog post, Brooks Bossong, a member ...

A complaint has recently been filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in an attempt to initiate a class-action case against PHH Corp. and Realogy Holdings Corp. and some of their subsidiaries and affiliates for allegedly deceptive and collusive practices in violation of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. The case references and appears to be inspired, at least in part, by the enforcement action the CFPB brought against PHH in 2014 in which the bureau alleged the lender violated RESPA by illegally referring borrowers to mortgage insurance companies in exchange for kickbacks. In that case, PHH Corp. v. CFPB, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia is set to hear oral arguments on ...

The Mortgage Bankers Association last week wrote the CFPB and other government regulators and agencies to warn that a rule adopted by the Federal Communications Commission last year could harm mortgage servicers when they try to provide early intervention with homeowners who are delinquent on their mortgages. The FCC’s order aims to bolster consumer protections against unwanted telephone calls and texts by, in part, restricting the ability of mortgage servicers, debt collectors and others to make autodialed or prerecorded phone calls without prior express consent of the person called. Violators can be subject to fines of $500 per phone call. But according to the MBA, the rule “threatens to expose mortgage servicers to significant and possibly unavoidable liability when they ...

Last week, Toyota Motor Credit Corp. reached a $21.9 million deal with the CFPB and Department of Justice to settle allegations that the auto lender charged African-American, Asian and Pacific Islander borrowers higher interest rates than white borrowers for their auto loans, without regard to their creditworthiness. In addition to the pay-out to affected minority borrowers, TMCC agreed to change its pricing and compensation system to substantially reduce dealer discretion and accompanying financial incentives to mark up interest rates.As the bureau explained it, TMCC, as an indirect auto lender, sets interest rates, or “buy rates,” for consumers based on credit scores and other risk criteria. Those rates are then conveyed to auto dealers. Auto dealers are then allowed to charge a higher interest rate when they ...

DocMagic Software Product Certified for TRID. DocMagic, a provider of document preparation, compliance, eSign and eDelivery solutions, recently received certification for its SmartCLOSE software product by the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization, a nonprofit subsidiary of the Mortgage Bankers Association. Specifically, SmartCLOSE has been awarded what is known as a Standard Level Certification for the TILA/RESPA Integrated Disclosure (TRID) rule. According to the MBA, the objective behind SmartCLOSE is to bring lenders, settlement service providers, and other relevant entities together inside a secure environment to share, edit, validate, audit, track and collaborate on documents, data and fees. SmartCLOSE received Standard Level certification for MISMO Version 3.3 within the TRID business domain. “With the Uniform Mortgage Data Program (UMDP) quality initiatives ...