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Posted By Robert Treuber,
Tuesday, March 7, 2023
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The following is an ALTA Alert issued yesterday.
You can also see it online - HERE
March 6, 2023
We want to bring to your attention an issue that is the highest priority for ALTA. We will need your active support going forward to combat this emerging challenge.
Last week, it was reported that
Fannie Mae is considering a pilot program that grants certain mortgage lenders a waiver on title insurance requirements for loans sold to Fannie Mae. This would be in place of traditional title insurance.
Fannie Mae’s charter and mission is to guarantee mortgages and provide liquidity for the secondary market. Fannie Mae was not established to provide title insurance and this mission creep should raise significant alarms. Fannie Mae is not licensed,
regulated or reserved for such purposes. Oversight of this business is the purview of state insurance regulators. The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) should instruct Fannie Mae to halt this activity.
Several members of the Senate Banking Committee have already taken issue with Fannie Mae moving beyond its charter into primary market activities. The lawmakers warned FHFA Director Sandra Thompson against repeating past mistakes learned from the 2008 financial crisis by allowing the Government Sponsored Entities (GSEs) to extend themselves and take on more risk.
The senators objected to initiatives outlined in the equitable housing finance plans re
leased by the companies, which are known as government-sponsored enterprises, or GSEs.
“The plans are a return to GSE mission creep,” the senators wrote to Thompson on July 19. “The GSEs’ charters limit them to supporting the secondary market. These plans, however, contemplate that the GSEs would push into the title insurance
and appraisal markets, and even the lending market. Primary market participants should be concerned about the GSEs seeking to return to their pre-crisis endeavors at evolving into full-service mortgage companies.”
In its Equitable Housing Finance Plan,
Fannie Mae said it would consider “pilot options to reduce title insurance costs to borrowers" as part of that effort.
Members of Congress have also objected to Fannie Mae’s announcement in April 2022 that it would accept AOLs in lieu of traditional title insurance to lower closing costs. U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil asked the FHFA for more details about the decision
to accept AOLs.
“Do you believe that encouraging lower- and moderate-income homebuyers to purchase a less protective insurance product is conducive to your goal of sustainable homeownership?” Steil wrote to Thompson in a Jan. 31 letter.
In a separate letter, Reps. Brad Sherman and Blaine Luetkemeyer also warned Director Thompson that these initiatives risk exposing consumers to harm by not providing the same consumer protections as title insurance.
“They also raise concerns about the safety and soundness of the Enterprises, increase[d] taxpayer risk which FHFA must consider as the GSEs’ regulator and conservator,” the lawmakers wrote.
A move by Fannie Mae into title insurance also raises risk to consumers. We learned from the 2008 financial crisis that strong underwriting standards are essential to a healthy housing market. Lowering of standards brought the housing finance system to
its knees, leaving taxpayers to spend nearly $200 billion to bail out the GSEs for their role in the 2008 housing crash.
What You Can Do
We are engaged with federal policymakers to highlight our serious concerns with these moves by the GSEs, as well as working with policymakers and regulators who share our perspective. Your engagement remains important in this process, including by participating
in ALTA’s upcoming ALTA Advocacy Summit in May, and responding to forthcoming alerts from ALTA. As always, if there are relationships you have with your Member of Congress of which we are unaware, please let us know.
ALTA will keep you informed as we push back on misguided policy proposals.
Comments and questions are always welcome. I can be reached at dtomb@alta.org.
Best regards,
Diane Tomb
ALTA CEO
Tags:
ALTA
Alternative to Title Insurance Products
Fannie Mae
GSE
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Posted By Robert Treuber,
Sunday, March 5, 2023
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A bill (S1326 ) signed by the Governor may be relevant to a business owner or company hiring manager, especially as relates to remote workers.
The following is from the bill jacket. SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Pursuant to approval memo 45, this legislation clarifies job advertising
in the law, and excludes remote job opportunities performed entirely
outside of the State without a connection to a New York office or super-
visor.
This post has not been tagged.
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Posted By Robert Treuber,
Friday, March 3, 2023
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A bill (S1334 / A967) has been signed and chaptered.
The bill repeals alternative notice provisions for certain proceedings to convey title to abandoned commercial and industrial real property to a city, town, or village.
See the bill text HERE.
Tags:
bill
Notice
repealer
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Posted By Robert Treuber,
Friday, March 3, 2023
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A bill (A610 / S2220) has been signed by Gov. Hochul and chaptered.
The bill prohibits agencies from charging a fee for records where an electronic copy is already available from a previous request made within the past six months except for the actual cost of a storage device or media if provided to the requester.
The following is from the bill memo.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section one of this bill would clarify that charging a fee for requests
under Article 6 of the Public Officers Law, constituting the Freedom of
Information Law (FOIL), shall be prohibited when an electronic copy for
such record already exists for the same request made within the previous
six months, except when a different fee is otherwise prescribed by stat-
ute or if the reproduction of such record is in the form of a storage
device, in which case the actual cost of that device or media may be
charged.
JUSTIFICATION:
In cases where a public record has been previously requested and exists
in the form of an electronic copy, the agency that furnished the record
can provide an electronic copy of that record upon subsequent request at
no additional cost to the agency. In those circumstances, agencies
should not be able to charge a fee for the original time taken to
produce the record. They may charge for the storage device or media
provided to comply with the request. This bill seeks to clarify such
changes made pursuant to Chapter 745 of the Laws of 2022.
Tags:
Fees
Law
technology
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Posted By Robert Treuber,
Thursday, March 2, 2023
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This morning, I received the following memo from our media communications consultants.
Bob We wanted to make you aware of a recent story (3/1/23) from “Politico” on Fannie May’s leaked plan to change title insurance. It’s behind a pay wall but the following is a rundown. “Fannie moves to revamp title insurance despite GOP warnings of risk” was written by Katy O’Donnell and includes references to Congressional GOP warnings to the Administration. The article states according to sources, “Fannie Mae is developing a pilot program to bypass traditional title insurance, and planning to expand its role in homeowners' insurance despite warnings from Republican lawmakers to stay away from the industry.” According to the sources, Fannie is developing a pilot program to bypass traditional title insurance. The program is part of a strategy to reduce closing costs for minority borrowers. Critics say it “could increase risk for taxpayers and have major consequences for the title insurance industry. The plan could be rolled out this spring, according to industry sources who requested anonymity to discuss conversations with Fannie's regulator. Certain mortgage lenders would be granted a waiver on title insurance requirements for loans sold to Fannie. A spokeswoman for Fannie declined to comment, but pointed out the company is “continuing to research options to help borrowers save money on closing costs and protect borrowers... and Fannie Mae from property and title defect risks.” O’Donnell wrote, “Critics of Fannie and Freddie Mac see the latest proposal as part of the ‘mission creep’ that they say the companies have engaged in for years. Fannie and Freddie, which together guarantee about half of the residential mortgage market, were created by Congress to help stabilize the market and increase the availability of money for residential mortgages. The companies have been in the government's hands since 2008, when Treasury took control of them to stave off their collapse in the financial crisis. The $190 billion bailout sparked more protests against the companies.” The article states, “Republican lawmakers have already taken issue with Fannie’s foray into tinkering with title insurance requirements.” It points out Senate Banking Committee Republicans warned Freddie’s regulator in July against “repeating the mistakes of the recent past” by allowing the government-sponsored enterprises to overextend themselves as they did in the run-up to the 2008 crisis. “The plans are a return to GSE mission creep,” the 12 Republicans, including Sens. Mike Crapo of Idaho, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Tim Scott of South Carolina, wrote in a letter to Thompson July 19. “The GSEs’ charters limit them to supporting the secondary market. These plans, however, contemplate that the GSEs would push into the title insurance market,” they added. “Primary market participants should be concerned about the GSEs seeking to return to their pre-crisis endeavors at evolving into full-service mortgage companies.” Fannie identified “reduc[ing] closing costs for Black consumers” as a goal in its Equitable Housing Finance Plan, the plan to advance racial equity in the market. The company said it would consider “pilot options to reduce title insurance costs to borrowers" as part of that effort. Industry insiders stressed “the new pilot is being developed in secret and goes beyond reducing the cost of insurance by effectively making Fannie itself a title insurer.” “As the industry continues to work collaboratively with the FHFA and the GSEs to strengthen its Equitable Housing Finance Plans, it was shocking to see this unprecedented step by Fannie Mae to move well beyond its statutory authority under its charter and mission,” said an industry participant. “Fannie Mae is now essentially entering the title business, and as a result, low- and moderate-income homeowners may unknowingly become exposed to greater risks and unforeseen financial costs,” the industry participant added. Lawmakers also objected to Fannie’s announcement in April 2022 that it would accept attorney opinion letters in lieu of traditional title insurance as a way to lower closing costs. Attorney opinion letters are based on searches of public records about a property and do not cover issues that may not be discoverable in the public record.
Tags:
alternate title products
Fannie Mae
Freddie Mac
GSE
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Posted By Robert Treuber,
Wednesday, January 25, 2023
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Today, January 25th, The Secretary of State published remote notarization regulations in the State Register. The State Register entry is attached to this blog post and it is available in the Resource Library, under the Government Regulations Committee File Library.
 Download File (PDF)
Attached Files:
Tags:
Dept of State
remote notarization
State Register
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Posted By Robert Treuber,
Tuesday, January 17, 2023
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Professional Notary Services, an NYSLTA member, has organized a "New York RON Roundtable" on
February 8th.
You can register here -
Tags:
Notary
Remote Notartization
RON
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Posted By Robert Treuber,
Friday, January 13, 2023
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Dear Valued Customer: We made good progress today! Finally, with the additional infrastructure equipment integrated, we have about 70 percent of our virtual servers fully functioning. I know you are seeking a timeframe for when your office will be fully functional - as am I! I have not been given the exact day, but based on today’s progress, I am hopeful it is soon! Tomorrow, our business partners and agencies with whom we integrate will receive a statement. [COTT CLIENT LETTER NOT ATTACHED FOR SECURITY - rgt ] Click here to view the copy of the information they will be receiving. It will be going to them via email. You may also find it informative as it is a compilation of our previous communications. Finally, you will see that we put a short statement on our website indicating that we are experiencing technical difficulties. I am sorry this is taking so long and thank you for your understanding.
Deborah Ball, CEO Cott Systems, Inc. | 2800 Corporate Exchange Dr., Ste.300 | Columbus, OH 43231
o)
800-588-2688 M-F 7am-6pm Eastern | f)
866-540-1072
Tags:
Cott Systems
County Clerk
Land Records
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Posted By Robert Treuber,
Thursday, January 12, 2023
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Dear Valued Customer: We did receive our large order from Dell. It has been installed and is integrating into our infrastructure. This finally gives us the room we need to copy all files, repair and reconnect virtual machines, and then test to make sure all functionality has been completely restored. Fortunately, I can confirm that our storage area network (SAN) is in good shape. The plan for Thursday is more of the same: integrating additional space, copying what we have, working to restore full functionality while analyzing and validating every step of the way. Every minute counts and 24 x 7 will remain in force until your offices are up and running. We ARE making progress. I am sorry this is taking so long and thank you for your understanding. Deborah Ball, CEO Cott Systems, Inc. | 2800 Corporate Exchange Dr., Ste.300 | Columbus, OH 43231
o)
800-588-2688 M-F 7am-6pm Eastern | f)
866-540-1072
Tags:
Cott Systems
County Clerk
Land Records
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Posted By Robert Treuber,
Wednesday, January 11, 2023
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Dear Valued Customer: At the end of the day today, we received additional hardware resources to assist in the validation of servers and data. Over the coming days we expect additional infrastructure resources which will accelerate our efforts toward getting you working as quickly as possible. Internally, working with our cyber recovery team, we have implemented an additional endpoint detection and response solution which protects all of our hosted and HQ infrastructure. This solution aided in the containment and removal of suspicious files and malware resulting from this cyber-attack. The endpoint detection actively scans and monitors our entire infrastructure. This will remain in force indefinitely. Externally, we have recommended that all customers change the access password given to Cott. In addition to creating new ones, implementing a multi-factor authentication password, and only enabling the access for Cott staff when you need assistance, are ways to protect your network. These are some of the steps that allow us to work together and to be as secure as we can in our partnership. As I mentioned yesterday, the work this week will consist of: integrating additional space, copying what we have, working to restore full functionality while analyzing and validating every step of the way. Being diligent requires patience which I have personally run out of! I am sure you have too. I can only hope to bring you better news with each passing day. Thank you for your understanding. I will keep you updated throughout the week. Deborah Ball, CEO Cott Systems, Inc. | 2800 Corporate Exchange Dr., Ste.300 | Columbus, OH 43231
o)
800-588-2688 M-F 7am-6pm Eastern | f)
866-540-1072
Tags:
Cott Systems
County Clerk
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