Borrower Signature(s) on Payoff Request

Do provisions of the Privacy Act require that borrowers sign a request for payoff?
We currently receive fax requests from closing entities i.e. attorneys, title companies and independent closing offices that are not acknowledged by the mortgagors. We fax back the quote that would include unpaid balance, escrow acct. balance, late fees if applicable and foreclosure fees if applicable.

We require the mortgage or closing company to include a signed authorization along with their faxed request for payoff info. Since we are giving out "non public consumer information", and our bank policy states that we do not release any info unless we receive written authorization from our customer, I think an examiner would be happy with that. You could get nailed for releasing info the customer didn't authorize you to.

On January 10 of last year the OCC sent a letter to IBAT opining that payoffs and VODs were exceptions under 40.14, "necessary to effect, enforce or administer a transaction".

The bank still has to verify in some way, that the request is authentic. Mcarollo is doing that to a high degree.

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Andy Zavoina
Opinions stated are not necessarily that of my employer.

[This message has been edited by Andy Z (edited 02-02-2002).]