02/17/2003
For a residential construction loan where the borrower will eventually occupy the home upon completion, is it necessary to supply preliminary disclosures such as the good faith estimate and truth in lending documents at the time of application?
02/02/2003
If we lower the interest rate and change the note from a fixed rate to a variable rate mortgage, do RESPA and Reg Z apply? Does it matter if the collateral is a primary dwelling or just a second home?
02/02/2003
If a customer is paying off a first mortgage with a new home equity line of credit, do we need to disclose the first mortgage payoff in any disclosures?
02/02/2003
One of my bank officers gave RESPA disclosures on a loan that was covered by the exemption section of the reg. Are we exposing our bank to be written up for a compliance exception by over disclosing when not necessary?
02/01/2003
As we begin a new year, it is tempting to provide New Year's resolutions that we think others - such as Congress - should make to improve the compliance world in which we work.
02/01/2003
The Comptroller of the Currency has put forward a revolutionary idea: consumer disclosures that are easy to prepare and understandable to consumers. What a novel concept.
11/18/2002
We have a discussion going on regarding RESPA as to having to disclose an appraisal fee as POC when lenders use a prior appraisal on file or one the customer may have obtained year(s) ago or when lenders do an in-house appraisal/evaluation. There is no cost to the customer. Lenders state they are not requiring an appraisal but use the appraised value in their credit analysis. The key word here is REQUIRE. An FDIC Examiner stated that if you use a prior appraisal or do an in-house evaluation(we do not charge) that you should show a cost as POC. His reasoning is there was a cost to the customer at one time. The Examiner referred me to FIL-45-2000, Q and A #7,#4, #8. One of our lenders attended a seminar on RESPA and ask this question. The instructor stated he had never heard of such a thing.
11/18/2002
Do you know of any regulations that would prohibit a thrift from paying referral fees (equal to 25 basis points) to a lumber company for referring speculative construction loan business to the thrift? These are commercial ventures.
11/18/2002
We were recently advised at the bank, where I am employed, that we must use the Affiliated Business Disclosure on every residential mortgage that we do. We are located in a small town where the majority of the customers we have choose to use the local attorney. I specify choose. Upon an examine we were told that it looked like we were making the customers use this particular attorney and that we had to give the Affiliated Disclosure on each an every mortgage because one of the attorneys is a board of director for our Holding company. Now, since we are doing this and a customer has chosen another attorney, it looks like we are soliciting for the local attorney. Do we indeed have to give this to every mortgage customer?
11/11/2002
What are the regulations on charging a fee for flood certification. And can a bank charge the customer more than the bank paid for it?