Among pending mortgage industry regulatory deadlines some players could be in neglecting in 2012 are requirements for third-party MERS audits.
The audits are a relatively small piece of a servicing-related consent order involving at least a dozen major banks and multiple regulators. Because of this they could be easily overlooked, and in some cases they have been, according to Quality Mortgage Services president Tommy Duncan.
The monthly third-party MERS audits need to be done starting after January’s month-end close, said Duncan, who predicts a bottleneck in this area coming in February. Quarterly and annual reports will need to be done as well, according to Anne Brennan, operations manager of servicing quality control at the company.
Granted it is difficult to keep up with all the regulatory requirements out there and it might be tempting to prioritize other new or recent rules while gambling on the possibility of an extension of this deadline. But given all the MERS-related scrutiny seen lately, generally it is probably best not to fall behind in this area if you can possibly help it.
Duncan thinks not everyone is going to meet the deadline but some will. The companies that stand the best chance are those that are already using MERS correctly, he said, noting that some gearing up for this requirement may discover that they haven’t been.
