DALLAS — The Mortgage Bankers Association's annual servicing conference opened with a plea from the trade group's chairman for executives to remember they have a duty beyond collecting loan payments from borrowers.
"Regulators, everyone in the industry needs to step back and work together to do what's right for the consumer," Bill Emerson said, answering those in the business who are less enthusiastic about impending regulations.
While the state of servicing is in flux and new regulations and requirements might seem overwhelming, "we have to get this right," said Emerson, citing regulation and the industry's approach to it as things that keeps him up at night. Now is the time to ensure past mistakes aren't repeated and current issues such as liquidity rules are handled appropriately, he told the several hundred mortgage bankers in the room.
Emerson, the chief executive of Quicken Loans in Detroit is expected to begin a one-year term as chairman of the MBA in October.
He said at the conference Tuesday that he can't think of a better time to talk about servicing than right now. As the industry has shifted over the past four or five years, people want to split the industry into bank versus nonbank, he said, which is unfair not least because the issues facing mortgage servicing are holistic, and span the breadth of servicing entities.
