Cindy (Cynthia) Berman serves as chief compliance officer, executive vice president for Freedom Mortgage, with more than 35 years of experience including regulatory counsel to mortgage lenders and mortgage servicers, full-service commercial banks, other financial institutions, and as a federal banking regulator. Berman is responsible for managing the company’s compliance function for all mortgage lending and mortgage servicing activities which enabled Freedom Mortgage to service the mortgages of two million homeowners representing over $460 billion in loans last year.
Since joining Freedom Mortgage in 2011, Berman has been instrumental in developing a robust regulatory compliance function that ensures the company is in compliance with the myriad federal and state consumer financial protection laws and regulations that govern mortgage lending and mortgage servicing. Berman’s leadership ensures each multilayered department is in compliance which enables Freedom Mortgage, an independent mortgage banking company, to do business in 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. This is especially challenging in the highly regulated mortgage industry where the laws change frequently and differ by state.
Berman has been instrumental in integrating compliance into the company’s culture by requiring accountability across the lines of business and support teams. As part of this effort, Berman generated approximately 50 internal compliance policies that address consumer financial protection laws such as Truth in Lending, Real Estate Settlement Procedures, Equal Credit Opportunity, Fair Lending & Fair Servicing, HMDA, Fair Credit Reporting, Fair Debt Collections Practices as well as the CFPB’s implementing regulations on Loss Mitigation and other Servicing Rules, TRID, Ability-to-Repay and Qualified Mortgages, and Loan Officer Compensation. Berman leads her team to update each of these policies regularly every year to include any changes in the law and present them to Freedom Mortgage’s executives annually to ensure they reflect the company’s business practices.
Name:
Cynthia Berman
Title:
Chief Compliance Officer, Executive Vice President
Company Name:
Freedom Mortgage
