After attending several industry conferences over the last few weeks its clear that the watchword for 2014 is COMPLIANCE.

The CFPB has been named the ultimate enforcer in the Mortgage/Title/Real Estate world. Over the last couple of month, and several CFPB events it looks like they are serious about the changes which will go into effect Jan 2014.

Much of the change is not new, its only a renewed effort by the Bureau to enforce often long since ignored federal rules and regulations. The Banks are now responsible for the actions, inactions, errors and omissions of its vendors... (that's all of us!).  One area of particular concern for the bureau and our clients is the protection of Non Public Personal Information.  Don't let the name fool you! The CFPB and various enforcement agencies have made it clear that very public information, when compiled together constitutes Non Public Private information.  OK... I will come out and say it: The title searches performed on the public record, along with title notes and the like are considered Non Public Private Information, and must be protected at a level required to be followed by the banks.... that means that sole proprietor abstractor in the court house must follow the same privacy guidelines as  Bank of America.

So.... How is the small business person (abstractors) going to handle these changes???

1. All title searches will need to be transmitted via secured mean. (Encrypted Email)

2. All title searches cannot be left unattended in unsecured areas: Cars, Lockers, Brief Cases in the Court House (when you run to lunch or to check judgments)

We are in the midst of preparing our new privacy policy and vendor requirements, and what concerns me is that some of these safeguards, albeit a great improvement, are going to be very difficult to enforce and maintain. What are you seeing from your sources of business???? how are they addressing this.???

The ALTA website has great info on the regulations and CFPB action on its Best Practices section of the website... another great resource is the CFPB website.