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FHA recently announced that they are extending certain temporary COVID-19 related policies first announced in Mortgagee Letter 2020-24, including those related to verification of self-employment.
Mortgagee Letter 2021-16 extends the following previously issued guidance through September 30, 2021:
For Single Family Title II Forward Mortgage and HECM Program, the guidance on the verification of business operations for self-employed borrowers and on the verification of rental income (for case numbers assigned on or before September 30, 2021); and
For the 203(k) Rehabilitation Program, the guidance on 203(k) escrow administration for borrowers in forbearance (for open escrow accounts through September 30, 2021).
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Oregon recently enacted Senate Bill 765 (S.B. 765), which, in part, amends the state’s notary law to permanently allow remote notarizations. The changes made by S.B. 765 became effective on June 15, 2021.
In June 2020, Oregon passed House Bill 4212 (H.B. 4212), which, in part, temporarily authorized remote notarizations in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. H.B. 4212’s temporary remote notarization provisions were set to expire on June 30, 2021 (the Sunset Date). S.B. 765 repeals the Sunset Date, making the remote notarization provisions permanent. S.B. 765 also makes other clarifying changes to Oregon’s notary law regarding remote notarizations.
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On June 14, 2021, Texas enacted House Bill 3746, which requires notifications to individuals and the Texas Attorney General in the event of a data breach. Additionally, the bill requires the Texas Attorney General to post a listing of data breach notifications for breaches involving 250 or more Texas residents.
The full text of the bill can be read here.
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On June 4, 2021, the Federal Register published the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System’s (“Board”) adoption of amendments to Regulation D (Reserve Requirements of Depository Institutions). These amendments, among other things, eliminate references to certain rates, in particular the “interest on required reserves” rate and the “interest on excess reserves” rate; these are replaced with a reference to a single “interest on reserve balances” rate. Additionally, with respect to balances maintained by or on behalf of eligible institutions in master accounts at Federal Reserve Banks, the amendments simplify the formula used to calculate the amount of interest paid on such balances.
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The SEC recently reached a nearly $500,000 settlement with a publicly-traded real estate settlement company after the company allegedly failed to properly disclose cybersecurity defects, violating the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, Rule 13a-15(a). The defects exposed personal financial information on over 800 million mortgage insurance records dating back to 2003.
Rule 13a-15(a) “requires every issuer of a security registered pursuant to Section 12 of the Exchange Act to maintain disclosure controls and procedures designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed by an issuer in reports it files or submits under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized, and reported within the time periods specified in the Commission’s rules and forms.” The SEC alleged that the company knew of the serious vulnerabilities in the company’s document-sharing system at least five months before an independent jo