Chief Compliance Officer Attends 3 Day MBA Regulatory Compliance Conference in Nation’s Capital

We do everything we can to stay up-to-date on compliance topics related to the mortgage industry. One of the ways we accomplish this is by attending key compliance conferences throughout the year. Our Chief Compliance Officer, Rob Green, and Closing Department Manager, Courtney Puckett, recently returned from the 2015 MBA Regulatory Compliance Conference in Washington, D.C.

After they returned, I sat down with Rob to discuss his experience at the conference.

Q & A with Rob Green

Question: What were a few of the highlights of this year’s conference?

Rob: TRID was a hot topic, in fact the most talked about topic.  Another helpful session referred to Consumer Complaints and how they are more than a customer service issue, they are a key area of CFPB attention.

Additionally, there was a session on CFPB examination and enforcement actions which offered guidance on preparing your company for a CFPB examination alongside how to prevent an enforcement action.

Question: What stood out the most?

Rob: Two things. The first being on Sunday, there were over 700 industry professionals attending the sessions all day long. I think that shows what a huge deal TRID is.

Secondly, the CFPB spoke on a lot of the panels specifically regarding the TRID effective date. What they said, that I thought was really interesting and comforting, was how they’re not trying to catch everyone off guard. They’re figuring out the process just like the rest of us. The CFPB said they’d continue to work closely with industry partners to see what immediate concerns are out there.

Question: What’s up and coming in the mortgage industry, besides TRID?

Rob: There has been a lot of talk about the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA), which is on the horizon. Next there’s the small creditor definition. There are currently rules for small creditors and the CFPB is reevaluating the definition of small creditor, but they’re in the very early stages of developing the definition.

Another thing is automated valuation models (AVMs) which is a name given to a service which values property using mathematical and statistical modeling combined with prior home sale data. There hasn’t been much guidance on AVMs in the past, so new rules and regulations are coming out.

Lastly, the CFPB hasn’t given clear guidelines on Marketing Service Agreements (MSAs) up to this point, and there have been a lot of enforcement actions against companies for MSAs. They’re finding companies are using MSAs to get around RESPA violations. Since the CFPB hasn’t weighed in with their opinion one way or another, the industry has been asking for more guidance.

Question: What was the greatest benefit of attending for you?

Rob: The fact I got a refresher on TRID right before the effective date. That was helpful. It’s less than 2 weeks away, so it’s giddy up time.

Question: While in D.C. did you do a little site-seeing?

Rob: Of course! I went to see Lincoln and we sat and pondered TRID together.