June 27, 2012
ALTA President Testifies Before Congress on RESPA Changes
American Land Title Association (ALTA) President Chris Abbinante participated last week with other real estate industry leaders in a U.S. House Financial Services Subcommittee hearing entitled "Mortgage Disclosures: How Do We Cut Red Tape for Consumers and Small Businesses?". The three-hour hearing focused on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's (CFPB's) project to integrate the current TIL, GFE and HUD-1 Settlement statement into a set of combined forms. TLTA has been actively engaged in providing comments to the CFPB over the last year about our concerns, which you can read more about here. Raj Date, deputy director at the CFPB, told the committee that the Bureau expects to meet its statutory deadline and propose new disclosure forms and rules by July 21. You can click here to watch ALTA President Chris Abbinante's testimony, and read his shorter, spoken testimony and longer, written testimony. Stay tuned as TLTA will soon provide an update detailing this ongoing process and what you can do to ensure the title industry's concerns are heard and addressed.
Texas Department of Insurance Seeks to Fill Two Positions
As a result of the recent restructuring at the Texas Department of Insurance as well as the promotion of Rob Carter and the departure of Bernice Kennedy from the Title Division, TDI is seeking to fill two recently posted positions. To read more about these positions, you can click here and scroll to job posting number 12-155.
TDI Agent Stat Data Deadline July 26
TLTA Webinar on July 10 Will Walk You Through the Process - Register Now
The Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) recently issued its call for Agent Statistical Data. The completed report must be postmarked or submitted electronically by July 26, 2012. You may read the bulletin here, and you may download all of the necessary forms from the bottom of the bulletin. Please note: the call for Underwriter Stat Data has not been made yet, but we expect it to also be issued soon. If you have any questions, please contact Betty Flores at TDI at 512.475.1878.
On Tuesday, July 10 from 10-11:30am, TLTA will host a webinar to help walk you through the report and provide an overview on how to fill out the interactive PDF forms. Register Here >
Be Part of a Record Breaking Year - More Than $157,000 Raised So Far!
There are just a few days left in the TLTAPAC year and it's not too late for you to be a included in the record books! Thanks to 398 generous donors, we have raised a record setting $157,629 so far. Make a contribution today, and you'll be recognized on the TLTAPAC website along with the other donors who made this year's spectacular effort possible. Every dollar we raise will aid our mission to educate elected officials and promote the importance of title insurance in Texas. By pooling individual contributions into large donations, we are able to have a greater impact on the political process and add to TLTA's credibility and visibility at the capitol. Please join our efforts by making a donation online today.
FHFA Proposes Rule to Restrict PACE Loans
Last week, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) released proposed rules restricting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from holding mortgages on properties encumbered by Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) loans. Previously, the agency issued a position statement giving this direction to Fannie and Freddie, however the proposed rule looks to solidify that position. The rule proposes to ban the GSEs from (1) buying a loan that is secured by collateral with a PACE obligation, (2) giving consent to a borrower to burden the collateral with a PACE obligation and (3) requires the GSEs to take all appropriate steps to secure their interests (including foreclosure) if a borrower does burden the property with a PACE obligation without the GSEs consent. Read the entire proposed rule here.