Conference attendees at the 2017 National Settlement Services Summit (NS3) in San Antonio, addressed some of the title industry’s biggest regulatory and compliance issues, as well as take audience questions regarding what one can do to better prepare for a smoother second half of the year.
Panelists included Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Regional Director Dama Brown, American Land Title Association Senior Counsel Steve Gottheim, Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) Vice President and Regulatory Counsel Ken Markison. The session was moderated by Richard Horn, founding attorney, Richard Horn, Legal, PLLC.
Gottheim looked into the future as to how the title industry will look in the next five years.
“The purchase market will be strong,” he said. “There is a big wave of homeowners coming. In 2023, 25-to-30-year olds will be purchasing homes. That will be the peak buying time.”
Markison told the audience a “lookback” on rules and regulations, which the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has begun on some of its rules such as the Ability-to-Repay/Qualified Mortgage rule, is important and a necessary step in the process.
“It’s an opportunity to review and look at what is and what isn’t working,” he said.
Security is another hot topic everyone is both interested in and concerned about.
“Protecting one’s personal information is a priority,” Brown said. “The opportunity to come to more conferences like NS3 gives everyone in the industry guidance needed to protect one’s self to the best of their ability.”
Earlier in the day, Mid American Mortgage, Inc. Chairman, President and CEO Jeff Bode, Wells Fargo Strategy and Financial Reform Vice President Penny Reed and North State Bank Mortgage President Ken Sykes discussed issues from the world of eClosings.
“When lenders are thinking about eClosings, they have to understand their comfort level,” Reed said. “Your constituents will know of no other way to operate than the utilization of eClosings. If you as an industry do not embrace this, you will get passed by.”
Bode stressed lenders need to view eClosings with “open arms” and an open mind.
“This is going to happen,” he said, while Sykes said “three years from now, eClosings will be so common the conversation will be, ‘How do we take this process and advance?’ I give credit to the top industry organizations such as Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae who have made the implementation of this technology adaptable, and not that difficult to comprehend.”
In a second eClosing session, panelists said the secondary market has played a vital role in the overall acceptance of such technology within the title industry
Clayton Holdings, LLC Legal Regulatory Counsel/Compliance Services Director John Levonick, in a session titled “eClsosing: Nothing Stopping Us Now,” said there is going to be a technology shift as far as who will be the technology players giving third parties the comfort needed regarding uniform standards.
“Over the last three years, the growth of technology has been enormous,” Levonick said. “The use, though, of proprietary technology still scares me a lot because of the home-grown methods out there that could cause some issues. Investors in secondary markets need to do an operational review; if they can’t do that there will be a lot of questions. It should make for some interesting conversation.”
“Human nature is still human nature,” Fannie Mae Deputy Chief Economist and Vice President Dr. Mark Palim said, referencing technology use. ”The technology pertaining to eClosings should be helpful. Still, it is good to be somewhat skeptical understanding that risks shift.”
Palim also delivered a presentation on the economic and consumer trends driving the mortgage and housing markets. He said the pace of legislative work on tax and regulatory reform has been slower than expected to start the year. Fannie Mae’s original projections were for those changes to take effect beginning in 2018, but because of the slowdown in Congress, the effect of potential reforms might not be felt until later.