Compliance Updates: April 2025 In Review
Apr 1, 2021
March was a busy month for our compliance professionals. We saw a number of changes from the nation’s largest mortgage investors (FNMA and FHLMC) and a number of States. The changes are detailed below.
Remember that you will always be up to date, up to the minute, by following the posts in our compliance blog(opens in a new tab/window). And now for the compliance and document changes we saw in March.
Investor and Regulatory Compliance News
We saw regulators and investors making some changes in March. In particular, we saw a number of states giving attention to their Remote Online Notarization (RON) laws. Here is what happened in March:
Arizona. Gov. Doug Ducey signed AZ S.B. 1115 (2021) into law. The new law repeals the Uniform Recognition of Acknowledgments Act and Articles 3 and 4 of Chapter 2, Title 41 of Arizona’s Revised Statutes (Electronic Notarizations and Remote Online Notarizations, respectively), and incorporates similar provisions into other parts of Title 41. We are currently reviewing these amendments to determine any impact, and evaluating any modifications, to our document library and/or systems. Learn more(opens in a new tab/window).
Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac. Despite Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s early guidance that URLA sections should be kept together as much as possible, some combinations of variable heights, as added to page footers, table footers, and table contents, can very infrequently cause a printing error in one sub-section. We have thus modified the formatting of Section 2 to allow for individual sub-sections to split across pages as necessary. This is in keeping with the Rendering Options for the Uniform Residential Loan Application (URLA) document provided by FNMA. The updated documents are now available in ConformX. Learn more(opens in a new tab/window).
In other GSE compliance news: On March 11, 2021, FNMA revised LL-2021-03 (their “master letter” covering temporary requirements to, and flexibilities for, origination processes, due to the COVID-19 Pandemic) and announced that their temporary rules for verbal verifications of employment and power of attorney would be extended to Apr. 30, 2021 but not beyond that. FHLMC also announced in Bulletin 2021-10 that they will not be extending, past April 30, 2021, some of the temporary flexibilities they allowed due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. We are currently reviewing these announcements to determine any impact, and evaluating any modifications, to our document library and/or systems. Learn more.(opens in a new tab/window)
South Dakota. Gov. Kristi Noem signed SD S.B. 193 (2021) into law. The new law promulgates a new notarial certificate to be used in connection with Remote Online Notarizations. This bill takes effect on July 1, 2021.We are currently reviewing this bill to determine any impact and evaluating any modifications to our document library and/or systems. Learn more(opens in a new tab/window).
Virginia. Gov. Ralph Northam signed VA HB 2064 (2021) into law. The new law amends various parts of Virginia’s Code regarding electronic recordings and notarizations, such as requiring an indication within a notarial certificate as to whether the notarization was done in person or via Remote Online Notarization (aka “RON”). We are currently reviewing this bill to determine any impact, and evaluating any modifications, to our document library and/or systems. Learn more(opens in a new tab/window).
In other Virginia compliance news: Gov. Ralph Northam approved VA H.B. 1882 (2021) in February. This impacts several rules regarding deeds of trust, including whether amendments and modifications to loan documents must be recorded if the deed of trust states that it secures any additional amendments and modifications, slightly modifying the subordinate language for refinance mortgages, and requiring the interest rate of the prior mortgage to be stated on the first page of the refinance mortgage. We are currently reviewing this bill to determine any impact, and evaluating any modifications, to our document library and/or systems. Learn more(opens in a new tab/window).
Wyoming. Gov. Mark Gordon signed WY H.B. 0008 (2021) into law in February, which amends various sections of the Wyoming-version of the Uniform Consumer Credit Code. Among these changes are amendments to the definition of a “loan primarily secured by an interest in land.” We are currently reviewing this bill to determine any impact, and evaluating any modifications, to our document library and/or systems. Learn more(opens in a new tab/window).
Other Document Changes
Our compliance team delivered a number of document updates in March, many related to our normal monthly audits of important investor and regulator documents. The changes have been summarized below with links to the full descriptions of the updates.
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(opens in a new tab/window). Subscribe today to stay up to date.
The preceding is for informational purposes only and is not and may not be construed as legal advice. No third-party entity may rely upon anything contained herein when making legal and/or other determinations regarding its practices, and such third party should consult with an attorney prior to embarking upon any specific course of action.