Industry News

Several trade associations, including the American Escrow Association and American Land Title Association, wrote to Congressional leadership, urging them to raise the debt ceiling.

MISMO is seeking public comment on a new set of enhanced work products, created by the Closing Instructions Development Workgroup (DWG), that are designed to create a common format for closing instructions.

The San Luis Obispo County, Calif., district attorney warned real estate professionals to be on the alert for criminal fraud by thieves pretending to be property owners, noting that in recent weeks there have been numerous reports of criminals posing as property owners and contacting real estate agents to sell property they do not hold title to.

MISMO announced a call for industry professionals to join the Title and Closing Docs to Data Development Workgroup (DWG), which will focus on creating standards for frequently used title and closing documents that can be readily adopted by the mortgage industry to establish a consistent method of title data exchange between parties.

CertifID announced its State of Wire Fraud report, detailing CertifID’s view into $1.4B worth of suspected fraud across more than 340,000 wire transactions. The report, which is based on proprietary data from CertifID’s wire fraud protection software and recovery services engagements, also found a 145 percent year-over-year increase in instances of reported wire fraud into the company.

The American Land Title Association provided its thoughts to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) regarding FinCEN’s notice of proposed rulemaking regarding beneficial ownership information access and safeguards and use of FinCEN identifiers for entities.

As we continue forward in this year, with numerous pieces of legislation and regulation at the federal and state level, what is it we should pay the most attention to? And how should we approach getting involved to impact the changes ahead?

Since the first discussions about eClosing, remote online notarizations (RONs), eMortgages, and similar digital closing tools, they have been held up as being more secure than paper transactions. Many have felt confident in touting these products, lobbying legislators and regulators for their use and encouraging other industry members to get on board. But what makes these transactions secure, and how can we play a part in ensuring their security?

The American Land Title Association submitted comments to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s request for information on ways to improve mortgage refinances, pointing to the role the industry plays in these transactions and warning against the use of alternative products.

Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-Mo.), the top Republican on the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Financial Institutions and Congressman Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the Subcommittee on Investor Protection, Entrepreneurship and Capital Markets, sent a letter to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) regarding their concerns with title insurance alternatives.