|
Seventy-four percent of lenders concerned about new rules on fee accuracy
LAGUNA HILLS, CALIF., May 5, 2009 – According to a survey of 355 lenders conducted by QuestSoft, a leading provider of mortgage compliance software and services for lenders, changes to the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) pose the greatest compliance concern in 2009. The poll asked lenders to rate their level of concern for 10 regulatory changes affecting the mortgage industry this year.
Seventy-four percent of respondents cited adjustments to fee accuracy rules set forth in RESPA as major concern for lending practices. To prevent kickbacks that increase the cost of settlement services, RESPA requires lenders to supply complete disclosures to consumers during several stages of the transaction process. The new rules specify that lenders must provide borrowers with a Good Faith Estimate (GFE) within three days of receiving an application as one such disclosure.
Adding to the confusion is H.R. 1728, which passed the House Financial Services committee on April 29. The House bill would negate the current RESPA changes and force a rewrite to better complement the Federal Reserve’s Truth in Lending Act (TILA).
“RESPA changes are very confusing right now, and lenders do not believe regulations will get easier to understand anytime soon,” said Leonard Ryan, president of QuestSoft. “With H.R. 1728 proposing to scrap the RESPA changes and rewrite the rules to better fit with TILA, lenders need easy-to-use programs and tools to keep up with and comply with constantly changing regulations.”
In addition to the changes to RESPA, 54 percent of the surveyed lenders said that changes to Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA), which requires lenders to disclose public loan data to prove complete service within their community, posed major concerns in 2009. Red Flags adherence (49 percent), compliance with federal, state and local consumer laws (45 percent) and borrower identity fraud (39 percent) rounded out the top five compliance concerns.
QuestSoft provides lenders with several software tools to manage lending compliance. Compliance EAGLE, an automated compliance review software that evaluates a loan file for adherence to the full range of mortgage lending regulations, including RESPA, HMDA, TILA, Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), flood determination requirements and other consumer and predatory lending laws. The company also offers HMDA RELIEF and CRA RELIEF, which provide lenders, banks and credit unions specific tools designed to ease the collection, analysis and reporting of HMDA and CRA data.
In a survey of 355 lenders, the level of concern cited for compliance issues in 2009:
Compliance Issue |
High Concern |
Medium Concern |
Low Concern |
RESPA Changes - New rules on fee accuracy |
74% |
18% |
4% |
HMDA Changes |
54% |
32% |
12% |
Red Flags Compliance |
49% |
35% |
12% |
Fed, State & Local Consumer Laws |
45% |
38% |
13% |
Fraud - Borrower identity |
39% |
37% |
18% |
High and Higher Cost Loan Thresholds |
29% |
39% |
25% |
Fraud - 4506T Verifications |
29% |
37% |
27% |
Fraud - Loan Flipping, Collateral |
28% |
37% |
27% |
Pending FEMA flood map changes |
22% |
41% |
32% |
CRA |
26% |
32% |
20% |
About QuestSoft
Laguna Hills, Calif.-based QuestSoft is an established provider of comprehensive and automated compliance software and services to the mortgage, banking and credit union industries. The company’s products enable more than 1,500 banks, credit unions and mortgage companies to simplify the collection, analysis, compilation and reporting of key lending regulatory report data.
For more information about QuestSoft and its products, visit the company's Web site at www.questsoft.com.
|
|
