Since the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued its April 13 bulletin two years ago, lender liability has been an important topic of discussion among lenders and settlement service providers alike. In that time, the industry has made strides to assure comply with regulatory expectations, but those expectations remain unclear.
During October Research, LLC’s National Settlement Services Summit this year, George Houghton, group president, agency operations, Stewart Information Services Corp., led a panel discussion with William Burding, executive vice president, general counsel, Orange Coast Title Co.; Penny Reed, vice president, industry outreach-business capabilities development, Wells Fargo Home Mortgage; and Paula-Rose Stark, senior principal, Promontory Financial Group LLC, on how to gain clarity and move forward to address the concerns of lenders and agents.
Regulatory ambiguity
It makes it hard to move forward when you don’t quite know the rules of the road. While sweeping changes have been made as to how the mortgage industry must operate, it is still unclear how to implement and verify these changes.
One thing is for certain, settlement service providers are an important inclusion to the definition of third-party providers.
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