I'm having a difficult time identifying what is required (if anything) to evidence that the FI has provided a required Housing Counselors List to our consumer mortgage borrowers. It seems like we are retaining a lot of extra copies to provide evidence. We have the borrower sign an acknowledgement receipt statement that they received the list, and we print an extra copy of what we provided (sometimes SEVERAL pages long) and we keep an extra copy of what was provided with the signed acknowledgement to show what counseling agencies were listed at time provided -- all of these documents of course end up scanned with the loan file. YIKES! Anyone care to share how they record evidence that the housing list is being provided?

Our LOS produces a housing list that has a signature line on it so we keep one and give another to the borrower.

Unless your investors are so anal as to require receipt acknowledgments for the list (or the Home Tool Kit), the monster is of your own making. There is no regulatory requirement that you have such a signature; many banks that want acknowledgments include a list of disclosures for the borrower to sign (one signature for multiple items). Others document their procedures and dispense with the acknowledgement signatures altogether (or limit them to the "biggies," like the LE and CloD, RoR notice -- stuff that really matters.

i.e.- documentation risk management--a wise business practice.

I agree - we certainly created this monster! I guess my battle now lies with me convincing my Compliance Officer that we don't need a signed acknowledgement nor a copy of what was actually provided --- he was the one who initially instructed the loan area to implement this practice. Thank you for the guidance.

Many banks use an initial disclosure cover letter listing all of the information provided to the applicants. Only copies of the most important disclosures are retained, such as the LE. The rest are considered delivered and are supported as such through policy, procedures, and the cover letter.

Official Interpretation

Section 1026.25—Record Retention

25(a) General Rule

2. Methods of retaining evidence. Adequate evidence of compliance does not necessarily mean actual paper copies of disclosure statements or other business records. The evidence may be retained by any method that reproduces records accurately (including computer programs). Unless otherwise required, the creditor need retain only enough information to reconstruct the required disclosures or other records. Thus, for example, the creditor need not retain each open-end periodic statement, so long as the specific information on each statement can be retrieved.

3. Certain variable-rate transactions. In variable-rate transactions that are subject to the disclosure requirements of §1026.19(b), written procedures for compliance with those requirements as well as a sample disclosure form for each loan program represent adequate evidence of compliance. (See comment 25(a)–2 pertaining to permissible methods of retaining the required disclosures.)

Thank you for choosing The Peoples State Bank for consideration of your financing needs.

We are providing, or have already provided you the following disclosures to help explain the terms of the proposed financing. If you have any questions after reviewing these disclosures please contact me and I will be glad to go over the details with you.

0 The Loan Estimate
0 Written List of Settlement Service Providers
0 Servicing Transfer Disclosure (see Servicing on page 3 of the Loan Estimate)
0 Notice of the Right to Receive Copy of Appraisal (see Appraisal on page 3 of the Loan Estimate)
0 The “Your Home Loan Toolkit” booklet
0 The Notice to Home Applicant / Credit Score Disclosure
0 Homeowner’s Counseling Notice
0 Notice to Borrower / Prospective Borrower (form HPU-01) as required by Indiana Code 24-5-23.5-8(a))
0 The Peoples State Bank’s Privacy Disclosure

If your proposed financing is an Adjustable Rate Mortgage (ARM) the following additional disclosures have been or are being provided:

0 The “Consumer Handbook on Adjustable Rate Mortgages (ARM)” booklet
0 Our In-house 1-1, 3-1 and 5-1 Adjustable Rate Mortgage Disclosures

If after reviewing these disclosures you wish to proceed with the loan request please return your check for $375.00 to cover the cost of the appraisal. If we do not receive your check within seven (7) business days (excluding Federal holidays and Sundays) from the date of this letter we will assume you have chosen not to proceed with the loan request and no further action will be taken.

We look forward to serving your financing needs.

I'm thinking that Dan's letter above is at least in part pre-TRID. The LE now contains the transfer of servicing and appraisal copy info so separate disclosures are no longer needed. Obviously I'm an opponent of papering the applicant with redundant stuff they won't read anyway.

Thanks what I get for speed reading! sorry, Dan.

TR see bullet point #3 & 4..

My cover lists the following, however we still maintain an image of what was sent to prove the correct zip was used, if for no other reason:

Enclosure: [there are check boxes for what actually applies to be marked]

Loan Estimate
Home Loan Toolkit (Purchase transactions)
Service Provider List
List of Homeownership Counseling Agencies
Notice to Home Loan Applicant or Risk Base Pricing Exception Notice, whichever is applicable. (Credit score disclosure)
Federal Sale of Insurance Application Disclosure
Privacy Notice
Important Applicant Information Document

Investors often require a copy of the list to show the zip code too.

Use the EMail Post button to send a copy of this thread (you have a choice of sending just one post, a post and replies to it, or the entire thread) to your compliance officer. Then talk with him or her about it.

Thank you, everyone, for the guidance. Our Compliance Officer is convinced that we don't need to maintain a copy of the actual housing counseling list provided. Since we use a one page Receipt of Housing Counseling List Acknoweldgement form to have the borrowers acknowledge that the list was provided, we are just "tweaking" the acknowledgement language to include the zip code which would match the zip code reflected in the header of the the list provided.