How Can You Ensure TILA-RESPA Compliance Efficiently

The Mortgage Industry has seen countless changings over the past couple of years designed to protect both borrowers and lenders. The most noticeable and impactful being the 2015 TILA-RESPA guidelines.

There are a number of changes that happened when TILA-RESPA was put in place including: how the new loan estimate, and closing disclosures need to be documented; new forms that need to be submitted for the disclosures; and finally there is a timeline put in place for these disclosures.

Many Loan Officers feel safe that their Loan Origination Systems will make sure they submit the correct forms and gather the right information from their borrowers, keeping them safe from penalties. The new forms that are generated in the Loan Origination Systems make sure the borrower clearly understands the loan terms, estimates, closing costs, and the comparison between all options. They also make sure that the borrower understands loan charges and the features of the loan so that they understand the cost of the transaction. But there is much more to the TILA-RESPA changes than new forms.

What is not in place is a way to make sure that the borrower receives the documentation within the defined three business day time frame. This means that even though you might collect the information and have the form complete, if the borrower does not receive it in 3 business days you are open to penalties. It has been reported that TILA-RESPA violations, even the most minor, can begin with penalties of $5,000 a day, and can increase to well over $1,000,000 dollars a day!

Another topic widely discussed while TILA-RESPA was released was Email Security. Most Loan Officers email their borrowers the Loan Disclosures. While the TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure rule does not require email encryption when disclosing private information via email, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau believes you should take precautions when it comes to protecting your borrowers’ sensitive information.

Sending a Secure and Encrypted Email allows you to safely email your customers to request sensitive information without the fear of the email being intercepted. Encryption decreases the odds of a data breach, and not only protects your clients, but also your business. Focus on closing the deal instead of worrying about if your email is secure or not!

Right now Title Agencies are required to use encrypted emails when dealing with the borrowers’ sensitive information, but other sectors are not. Stay ahead of the laws, and put Secure Email practices in place!

FocusIT has many products available that can help you meet the requirements, and take advantage of industry recommendations before those become required as well!

Making sure that your Loan Estimates and Disclosures are sent to your borrowers is easy with Pulse! Pulse will automate the email disclosure for you as soon as your required steps are completed in PointCentral. You no longer need to worry that you are not meeting this new requirements, Pulse will simply take care of this for you!