Cloudstar Ransomware Highlights Multiple Issuer Exposure Potential
On July 18, Cloudstar, a provider of IT security solutions and cloud hosting services to the U.S. title industry, stated that they were experiencing a highly sophisticated ransomware attack and its systems were inaccessible. As of this writing the attack has not been resolved. Fitch does not believe this will be a material credit event for its rated title insurance universe, but believes that this incident highlights the risk within not only the title industry, but all industries, of a potential cyber event and the impact of a single point of failure (SPoF) within the system.
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Ransomware imperils title, mortgage industry
Ransomware attackers hit major title industry cloud services provider Cloudstar, stopping an untold number of loans from closing on Monday. The ramifications for the title and mortgage industry may extend beyond the immediately impacted loan applications. Late Monday afternoon, Cloudstar's services were still offline.
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Online mortgage closings could soon become legal throughout US: What to know
Digital mortgage closings have been on the rise, especially in 2020 after states issued stay-at-home orders and many operations had to be done remotely. But while some states allow for remote online notarization (RON), or the ability to close a home loan from any device with an internet connection, other states are set against it. Recently members of Congress introduced a new bill that would make remote notarization instantly legal in all 50 U.S. states.
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Mortgage rates plunge after unpopular refinance fee gets the ax
Tumbling mortgage rates just went even lower following news that an unpopular fee on refinances is coming to an end. When the surcharge was first announced last summer, it created an uproar. It was meant to offset pandemic-related losses for mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two government-sponsored enterprises that buy most U.S. home loans and take them off lenders' hands.
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Better's One-Click Checkout Now Offers Title Insurance For Refi's
The BSS is a direct-to-consumer service that makes title insurance cheaper with smart decisioning, saving 20% or more on title premiums for customers, equating to hundreds of dollars saved. Title premiums averages to about $1,000 industry-wide. To date, BSS customers have saved $11 million in premiums compared to the average industry-wide title fee.
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Ex-LeClairRyan CLO pleads guilty to obstruction of bankruptcy embezzlement probe
Bruce Matson, 64, entered his guilty plea on Thursday, according to a statement from Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Raj Parekh. Prosecutors say Matson, the former chief legal officer of now-defunct law firm, LeClairRyan, lied to the U.S. Department of Justice's bankruptcy watchdog, the U.S. Trustee, in 2019 when the office conducted a probe into allegations that he misappropriated funds as the court-appointed trustee for LandAmerica Financial Group in its bankruptcy.
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First American beefs up intellectual property efforts
Former CoreLogic executive Rouz Tabaddor has been named vice president and chief intellectual property officer at title insurance provider First American Financial Corp. - a new position tasked with "accelerating" the expansion of the company's intellectual property portfolio.
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Discriminatory property restrictions, long illegal, can now be removed from Ohio deeds
As part of the state budget bill that became law this month, licensed real estate attorneys now have the legal backing to remove discriminatory covenants from future deeds whenever a property is sold or transferred.
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