Written by Ricardo Piñeres, Regulatory Compliance Counsel
Last Wednesday (April 23), Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Richard Cordray spoke at a forum about the mortgage process. During his remarks, Director Cordray focused on the CFPB’s planned eClosings pilot program that is aimed at helping consumers streamline the residential real estate closing process by eliminating the need for many of the forms to be completed by hand and allowing the process to be more electronic, thus giving consumers more time to review and understand the paperwork.
The eClosings pilot program is a part of the CFPB’s Know Before You Owe program and, according to Director Cordray, is just one of the ways that the CFPB is looking to simplify the mortgage process to improve the process for consumers. The four main concerns that the CFPB is looking to alleviate are:
- Consumers lack enough time to review documents;
- Consumers are faced with too much paperwork;
- Consumers have a hard time understanding mortgage documents and disclosures; and
- Closings are unnecessarily delayed due to minor errors in mortgage documents.
Having identified these concerns, the CFPB has decided to launch the eClosings pilot program as a way to:
- Help explain key terms, the closing process, and important documents;
- Give consumers more time to review closing documents; and
- Help consumers find and fix errors in documents prior to closing.
According to Director Cordray, “There are several ways that eClosings can pave the way for a more efficient process that is also more empowering for consumers. Electronic documents can make early delivery more convenient and simple – giving the consumer time to read the documents, consult with family members or professionals, and ask the lender questions.” He further went on to say that “shifting to an electronic process should lead to greater consistency and accuracy, since automated processes can make it easier to detect discrepancies.”
Credit unions that are interested in being a part of the eClosings pilot program should review the CFPB’s eClosing Pilot Guidelines and the CFPB’s solicitation announcement.
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Free Kick. Before I jump into today’s World Cup group previews focusing on Groups D and E, I want to share Nike’s newest football ad titled Winner Stays.
Group D: The second of the three Groups of Death, Group D houses three traditional powers, plus Costa Rica. Between Italy (4), Uruguay (2), and England (1), there are a total of 7 World Cup titles. The three of them will duke it out for the top two spots in the group, but don’t be surprised if Costa Rica can steal a couple of points to make things interesting for one or two of the heavyweights in the group. While all Italy, Uruguay, and England are all traditionally players on the world stage, they all come into the tournament with question marks. Italy has a solid defense, but there are concerns up top, especially if Mario Balotelli is on the wrong side of his mercurial ways. For Uruguay, the concern lies in their defense. And, with England, there are just too many question marks to count with Roy Hodgson’s squad needing to gel quickly.
Key Matches: Uruguay v. England, June 19 (3:00 pm EDT); and Italy v. Uruguay, June 24 (12:00 pm EDT).
Projected Finish: (1) Italy; (2) Uruguay; (3) England; and (4) Costa Rica.
Group E: This group has two very clear tiers. The top tier is France and Switzerland. I believe that they will easily advance to the knock-out rounds. Ecuador and Honduras play hard, but they just don’t have the quality to keep up with the top two teams in this group. Things might have been different had Ecuador not suffered the tragic loss of their top scoring threat, Cristian Benitez. Benitez passed away in July of last year of cardiac arrest after making his first appearance for the Qatari club El Jaish. Ecuador will miss his skills and his passion, and who knows, maybe they will draw inspiration from the loss. That said, this looks like a straight forward group.
Key Match: Switzerland v. France, June 20 (3:00 pm EDT).
Projected Finish: (1) France; (2) Switzerland; (3) Ecuador; and (4) Honduras.
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