January 2021 Compliance Roundup

As we recap the document and compliance updates that occurred in January, we start with a reminder regarding the imminent change to the industry’s most used mortgage application document. If you have yet to begin your work in preparation for the new Uniform Residential Loan Application (URLA), now is the time and we’re here to help.

An important product update that we shared in January was that the Solex^® platform is no longer accessible by the deprecated Microsoft Internet Explorer browser. Our “Consent to Receive Electronic Loan Documents” language, which appears in Solex^® before borrowers are able to access electronic copies of their disclosures, has been updated accordingly. For more information including a list of applicable browsers, visit our compliance blog.

Additional Document and Compliance Updates Shared in January:

Investor and Regulatory Compliance News
CFPB. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) published their final rule to amend Regulation Z, expanding its exemptions from establishing an escrow account for certain higher-priced mortgage loans to certain insured depository institutions and insured credit unions. Since these new exemptions apply solely to attributes of a financial institutions and not to the terms of any loans, we will not be making any changes to our documents at this time. Learn more.

Freddie Mac. FHLMC has incorporated some of their temporary requirements imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic into their “Single-Family Seller/Servicer Guide,” making such requirements permanent – particularly those involving a power-of-attorney (“POA”). This has led us to change the configuration of our “Explanation of Loan Terms (POA”) document (Cx23852) so that it will print for all loan purposes, for loans which involve a POA and which are intended to be sold to Freddie Mac. Learn more.

Fannie Mae. FNMA recently updated their instructions for their Oklahoma Mortgage (Form 3037) to include new Authorized Change # 14, which modifies the text within the mortgage to specify that it is subject to Oklahoma law. We are reviewing to determine the impact to our library. Learn more.

Texas. The State’s Department of Savings and Mortgage Lending has finalized amendments to Chapters 80 and 81 of its Administrative Code. The proposed changes were originally announced last September and the finalized changes went into effect on January 3, 2021. Learn more.

Other Document Changes
Our compliance team delivered a number of document updates in January. The changes have been summarized below with links to the full descriptions of the updates.

• Our standard Massachusetts HELOC mortgage document (Cx1332) has changed. The witness lines section has been removed. Learn more.
• HUD has published a revised version of some documents, prompting us to create a new copy of HUD-92900-A (Cx24442). Learn more.
• The Social Security Administration has published a revised version of Form SSA-89. We have updated our duplicate version (Cx5579) to match. Learn more.
• We have updated form Cx13513, the FHA Loan Underwriting and Transmittal Summary, to remove cents from the Total UFMIP amount, as HUD doesn’t track that. Learn more.
• The Texas Home Equity Loan Closing Instructions Addendum (Cx5004) has been changed, due to research suggesting that there is no legal requirement to produce a separate document to either certify rescission nor provide a rescission notice. Learn more.
• Our monthly audit of Federal agency forms has resulted in some document updates to three VA documents. Learn more.
• Our monthly audit of Federal agency forms has resulted in some document updates to two FHA documents. Learn more.

You can always find all of the details related to every compliance change and commentary from the industry’s very best compliance team on our compliance blog. Subscribe today to stay up to date.