Loan Think

The Federal Housing Finance Agency's Duty-to-Serve rule must include a substantive commitment from the government-sponsored enterprises to purchase chattel loans.

By implementing a platform designed specifically to support quality control, lenders can continuously prepare for an audit while simultaneously executing on everyday loan quality tasks.

In the absence of congressional action on housing finance reform, here is what the Federal Housing Finance Agency should do sooner rather than later.

The mortgage industry can better manage disparate regulatory requirements with a comprehensive approach that streamlines compliance.

Lenders must treat self-service technology as a tool that facilitates, rather than defines, the mortgage borrowing experience.

Brokers and small lenders are being crushed under the weight of heavy regulation, leaving loan officers little choice but to shoulder the burden themselves — or move to an organization that can handle the regulatory requirements.

Recent Consumer Financial Protection Bureau enforcement actions against lead generation companies emphasize the breadth of lenders' responsibility for the third parties they expose borrower clients to.

Increased enthusiasm for automated valuations presents an opportunity for the appraisal industry to develop tools that combine high-efficiency, low-cost processes with the accuracy of human expertise.

Tech-enabled shortcuts that borrowers might assume are harmless — or what loan officers, real estate agents and borrowers consider good customer service — may in fact lead to very risky, or even illegal, habits.

What mortgage companies pay LOs, and how compensation plans are determined and structured, can give regulatory agencies more information about a company's priorities than lenders might think.