2015 Mortgage Industry Changes Impact Notaries in August

NSA’s must understand new changes to the loan signing process and the industry’s 2015 loan disclosure forms.

The mortgage industry will soon experience significant workflow changes that will affect your loan-signing business. To help navigate the changes, the Notary Bulletin has key information about what’s coming and offers guidance on how you can better meet the expectations of lenders, title companies and signing services.

Learn More About The New Closing Disclosure

What is the change? Under the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s new TILA/RESPA Integrated Disclosures (TRID) Rule taking effect August 1, the existing HUD-1 Settlement Statement and final Truth In Lending Statement will be combined into a single Closing Disclosure form. In addition, the new Loan Estimate form replaces the current Good Faith Estimate of Settlement Costs (GFE) and initial Truth in Lending Disclosure (TIL).

How does it affect signing agents? The new forms are intended to simplify the loan signing process and give borrowers more time to review and ask questions about the terms of their loan. But some lenders still need to take important steps to implement the nearly 1,900-page rule by August 1.

Growing Emphasis On Privacy Protection

What is the change? To comply with CFPB requirements, more and more lenders are expecting anyone handling loan documents to abide by privacy policies that govern how sensitive consumer financial information is protected. This includes third-party vendors such as title and settlement services companies as well as the NSAs they hire.

How does it affect signing agents? NSAs will be expected to understand and abide by the consumer protection policies of the companies that hire them. This could include such things as how to ship loan packages and what to do with emails containing consumer information.

Continuing Education

There are a number of resources available to help you keep pace with the 2015 mortgage industry changes. For example, the CFPB has a resource page that includes the new Closing Disclosure along with other materials regarding the new TRID rule.

The NNA has an interactive sample Closing Disclosure. You can also read more about the new disclosure forms and other industry trends right here in the Notary Bulletin.

Members have access to educational articles dealing with these changes in The National Notary magazine. The June 2015 issue, for example, has an in-depth article about how signing agents will be affected by TRID.

The NNA has also introduced a new NSA Annual Compliance eLearning Course that trains NSAs to handle the upcoming Closing Disclosure and other compliance issues. This course explains:

What the Closing Disclosure is
What types of loans it will affect
When it will appear
How it will change my responsibilities as an NSA

David Thun is an Associate Editor at the National Notary Association.

15 Comments

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mannymae

02 Nov 2015

I just received a new signing under the TRID guidelines, and the Loan closer is trying to tell me that although my signing is on Nov. 5th, I need to date the docs for the 3rd of November??? What the heck? That cannot be correct can it??? I do not post or pre-date anything for anyone! Can someone tell me how that is better?

Peter Whitmore

19 Oct 2015

I received an assignment with the following note: "Fax backs can never be sent via email - it is a violation of the TRID". I have taken several on-line courses (including NNA's) and don't recall this aspect being mentioned in any of them. How is this a violation? How is this any less secure than an actual fax?

National Notary Association

20 Oct 2015

Hello. The issue of faxbacks via email is not addressed by TRID. TRID has to do with the new mortgage forms. It is possible the lender made this request to ensure that the customer's information is protected, since lenders are responsible for how well (or poorly) their third party service providers protect this information. Generally, use of public email that is not encrypted to send sensitive information is not encouraged.

Shannon Ziccardi

15 Jun 2015

Why is it, that nobody can tell us the "big mystery" of exactly what these documents will look like? It would seem that a "practice set" would be the first order of business so that NSA's and Escrow, Title and Lender personnel alike could have something tangible to refer to rather than learn THE HARD WAY on day one. Or, for this entities implementing the changes, a YOUTUBE-like video showing a loan package in the new formatting and breaking it down step by step... Seems like a more worthy endeavor than all of this hand wringing by everyone involved.

16 Jun 2015

Hi Shannon. We have a sample Closing Disclosure form available at the following link: http://www.nationalnotary.org/knowledge-center/signing-agent-resources/signing-agent-tools/closing-disclosure

Judith Mccullough

13 Jun 2015

I have to agree with Chris Wilinski. Too much work expected for too little pay. Loan packages are getting out of control. One I had was 211 pages. Had to print twice. I have raised my printing fee, if over 130 pages. Also the expenses we incur have raised. Too many notaries have jumped on being a signing agent without any experience and make too many mistakes due to lack of knowledge of title and lending. They will take a job for little compensation and make it hard for experienced notaries in the escrow and lending fields to make a living. One company expects a notary to drive 100 miles or more and pay $60.00 to print, drive, and fax back. I just tell them I wan't planning to pay for a job. Loan packages are over the top. I have had some 211 pages. The borrowers are bored stiff and totally tired of the process by the time we dig through 211 pages. Wonder how quicken loans can get by with 85 to 100 pages. Some title companies manage to have at least 10 notaries for just their documents before we even get to the lender documents. As a private individual I have started finding who the lender, title are before I accept an assignment. We must learn to protect ourselves.

John McCoy

08 Jun 2015

I'm happy to see that the docs are being updated, but a lot of work is still to be done. The 4 or 5 pages of instructions with every W-9 is a waste of paper unless they are required by the borrowers. I imagine they are required by some govt. disclosure regulation. ID forms should be condensed into 1 or 2 pages, enough to contain to contain all required info.

Carol Long

What is the cost of the e learning course?

09 Jun 2015

Hi Carol. We've added a link in the article to the page with the full course information for each state.

John W. Nevil

Great resource for the NSA

Chris Wilinski

This is all fine and dandy however with all of this additional responsibility, for $10 per signature, if you're lucky because some companies just pay a flat fee in which they take full advantage of the NSA by not even paying per signature and all the additional work, certifications, driving, faxing, shipping, is all above what notaries were intended to be there for, deterring fraud. Not to mention your own personal liability, being the first person inline to be questioned if the loan goes sideways. The only ones really making any money are the companies creating the continuing education courses and requirements.The mortgage companies because now they don't have to send their loan officers out in the field because now they have a loan closer/notary doing their work. By shotgunning and cattle calling new members, that are happy to make $45 for sometimes 3-4 hours of work, it's just a big joke. We were never supposed to interpret the documents for the borrowers. If these were legal attorney documents for a lawsuit, we would not be explaining these docs to them. It is the loan companies, employees that should have the liability, not us. I've been a notary since 1992. This is a big joke

Sharon Bovaird

What is TRID?

TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure. http://www.consumerfinance.gov/regulatory-implementation/tila-respa/

Llona Murphy

I tried to find the ecourse on your website and couldn't. Where do I find it?

Hello. We've added a link to the course information in the article.

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Learn More About The New Closing Disclosure

Growing Emphasis On Privacy Protection

Continuing Education

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