The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau set its 900-page servicing rule to go into effect later this year, and technology professionals are preparing software for servicers in compliance with the rule.
After a nearly four-month delay since the CFPB finished the final mortgage servicing rule, the Office of the Federal Register finally published the rule on Oct. 19, meaning it would go into effect one year later on Oct. 19, 2017.
Wednesday, tech professionals spoke on a panel, Using Technology to Support Servicing, at the Mortgage Bankers Association Servicing conference in Dallas. At the session, George FitzGerald, Black Knight Financial Services executive vice president of solutions management asked panelists if they were awaiting further clarification from the CFPB that would change their technology or delivery approach.
The panelists’ answers were simple: We don’t know what we don’t know.
Fiserv Product Manager John Park explained that, while there will be changes with the new rule, technology companies can’t predict what they don’t know.
And other experts echoed his sentiments. Caroline Ritchie, Black Knight senior vice president of servicing technology, explained that “the devil is in the details” and that as the company dives deeper into the new changes, it discovers new questions that the team has to work through.
“It is a collaborative effort to be prepared for everything,” said Panelist Monique Riccobelli, Huntington National Bank consumer and commercial servicing director and senior vice president.
Panelists also stressed that although the new servicing rule doesn’t take effect until October, technology companies should be ready earlier than that in order to troubleshoot and work with servicers on the transition before the deadline.
However, Riccobelli added that the servicing rule could see changes at the last minutes, and companies must balance being ready ahead of time with preparing for last minute changes.
