As election season comes to a close, we saw the regulatory landscape and compliance landscape prepare for shifts and updates. Many states modified laws, which then required additional document changes on the First American Docutech front. These changes are automatically incorporated into ConformX, to ensure that your documents are in compliance with state, federal and investor requirements.
The industry saw very little new investor compliance activity in October. Regulator activity was likewise muted, perhaps due to the runup to the presidential election. The only activity from any government agency came from the IRS, who finally published their long-awaited new 4506-C form.
With the presidential election only a month away, Congress and the regulatory agencies have not made any major new rulings or proposed new rules. Still, there have been minor changes made by the Federal Agencies which required changes to documents - and some changes to improve our documents. These changes went into effect on September 25.
As summer starts to fade, the compliance landscape for August slowed as Congress entered recess and regulators slowed new rules. However, August was filled with several document updates, and Docutech unveiled an exciting new disclosure matrix.
Follow our compliance blog to remain up to date on regulatory changes within the industry.
New Mandate Use Date: March 1, 2021
It has been four years since the Federal National Mortgage Association (“FNMA”) and Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (“FHLMC”; collectively “the GSEs”) unveiled a completely revised version of their “Uniform Residential Loan Application” (FNMA Form 1003/FHLMC Form 65) and, after many postponements and revisions, the new version took effect Saturday (August 1, 2020) for select participants during a “Limited Production Period” (“LPP”). The road to production for this form has been long and tedious, but hopefully the destination will have been worth the journey.
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to change the regulatory and compliance landscape for mortgage lenders. Many states continue to pass laws requiring lenders to offer forbearance options instead of defaulting on loans, and others are trying to facilitate more remote-based options. This has required many document changes, all of which are automatically incorporated into ConformX, ensuring that your documents are compliant with state, federal and investor requirements.
As we enter the summer months, lenders are facing a complicated lending and regulatory environment. Despite states beginning to reopen, many borrowers and lending staff are choosing to maintain social distancing. As a result, more states are permitting Remote Online Notarizations (RON) in the absence of Federal guidelines.
Our compliance team is hard at work monitoring any developments at the federal and state level to provide you with the information and tools necessary to continue operations amid COVID-19. We are seeing updates at both the state and national level to accommodate difficulties in this time and are working continuously to ensure our guidance reflects the latest news.
March was a tumultuous month for all of us, as everyone across industries and even continents attempted to establish a new normal amid the COVID-19 outbreak.
