While the proposed changes to TRID are certainly generating a lot of attention from lenders planning their 2017 compliance priorities, there are several other developments lenders should keep an eye on. These other regulatory issues affect not only the documents used in applications and closings, but also in reporting the annual loan data required by the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA).
After nearly nine months of watching lenders struggle to fully implement the TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosures (TRID) regulations that went live in late 2015, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released a series of proposed amendments. While there are no large individual changes, depending on a business’s practices, there are several small tweaks that could greatly impact the lender’s processes and procedures.
The mortgage industry continues to progress slowly toward the Holy Grail of a completely paperless process. As different technology providers enter the eMortgage space, a variety of partnership arrangements have evolved in order to piece together the various components needed for a fully electronic mortgage solution. Let’s explore those components, the different ways they can be assembled, and the possible advantages and downsides.
Based on today’s heavily regulated mortgage industry, financial institutions are re-evaluating their key goals and strategies to ensure they are not only meeting the latest compliance guidelines, but also doing so in the most cost effective way possible. While each institution is unique and shares different goals, the overarching theme for mortgage improvement across the industry points to increased efficiency and improving customer experience as the leading goals institutions are working toward.
Having been in the business of helping lenders on the path to paperless for a good portion of our 25 years of service, we have seen many management teams approach eMortgage. Because this territory is so new for many, some companies stumble or hold back when they are on the very cusp of updating their institutions for the future. Fortunately, today there are many great resources available for the lender who wants to prepare for and then enter the world of electronic mortgage lending.
The mortgage industry is a document-centric business; you can’t get around it. If they don’t have the right documents, financial institutions can’t sell loans into the secondary market. This is an exciting time, because that no longer means that documents have to be printed on paper. So in working toward that new electronic workflow, business should be no longer driven by the documents themselves, but rather the data contained in them.
For most industries in which signing on the dotted line concludes the transaction, putting a solid eSignature experience in place is pretty straightforward. Many companies simply push a signature pad across the desk instead of a paper document. Things aren’t quite that simple in the mortgage business. Here, we ask borrowers to sign many documents throughout the entire mortgage process. Some of the docs must be executed early in the process, others at least three days prior to close and then even more at the closing table. Establishing a consistent, easy-to-use, seamless eSigning experience for the borrower across the entire mortgage origination timeline has been problematic in the past. Not anymore.
With most conferences we attend, there are multiple speakers and comprehensive sessions spread out across several days; however, in the case of this year’s Electronic Signature & Records Association (ESRA) Summer Member Meeting, immersive sessions and speakers were jam packed into one in-depth day.
CIOs have a unique perspective on a financial institution’s technology investments. Operations and sales managers evaluate the impact a new tool might have on efficiency, cost savings or ease of use. The CIO and CTO, on the other hand, also need to ensure that the software works, is secure and can grow with the bank or lending institution.
