AllRegs, NAMB Announce Partnership

AllRegs, a well-known information provider for the mortgage lending industry, announced Thursday that the company was named the official and exclusive training provider for the National Association of Mortgage Brokers. Delivered by its educational division known as AllRegs Academy, AllRegs said in a press statement that it will offer training to NAMB’s national membership in a variety of delivery modes, including audio programs, self-study online courses, instructor-led webinars and classroom programs. Courses will focus on a variety of mortgage origination and compliance topics, including Fair Lending, state compliance topics, FHA, HERA, TILA, RESPA, ethics and more. NAMB CEO Roy DeLoach characterized the partnership as one needed to “provide all mortgage originators with training and continuing education on the most relevant compliance topics and mortgage industry trends.” Here at HW, we can’t help but note that many originators aren’t brokers these days, despite DeLoach’s comments; the ranks of mortgage brokers in the industry has obviously been decimated as banks have exited wholesale origination channels in droves during the past 18 months, and retrenched their own operations on retail lending. The training agreement comes at what is likely a critical juncture for the TPO — that’s third-party origination — business, too. States are enacting new sets of stringent requirements covering originators, and establishing licensing standards that require new educational criteria, meaning that those brokers still left standing in the business face an increasingly complex set of professional requirements needed to perform their jobs. In fact, many brokers claim they are being unfairly targeted by state and federal regulators as perpetrators of the housing mess; a new RESPA requirement has, for example, been assailed by the NAMB as competitively unfair to its membership. The AllRegs partnership appears as if it might help centralize and standardize some of the training practices the TPO side of the origination business will need as brokers set about restoring their damaged credibility — whether rightly deserved, or wrongly accused. “As the intermediary between consumers and lenders, mortgage brokers play an important role in the mortgage process, one that relies on knowing the latest mortgage regulations and trends, both from the lender and consumer perspectives,” said Dan Thoms, AllRegs senior vice president. “At AllRegs, we are honored to be named NAMB’s official and exclusive training provider, and to have the opportunity to train mortgage brokers on core content and regulations vital to their profession, their license and their day-to-day tasks.” While AllRegs offers a wide range of educational products and services for the mortgage industry, the company is probably best known for its exclusive agreement to manage seller/servicer guidelines in partnership with Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE). Write to Paul Jackson at [email protected]. Disclosure: The author held no relevant investment positions when this story was published. Indirect holdings may exist via mutual fund investments. HW reporters and writers follow a strict disclosure policy, the first in the mortgage trade.