The Title/Appraisal Vendor Management Association (TAVMA) has sent a three-page letter to the National Association of Mortgage Brokers (NAMB) to protest that organization's "inaccuracies and mischaracterizations of appraisal management companies (AMCs)" in what TAVMA calls an effort to undermine the Home Valuation Code of Conduct (HVCC).

"Everyone in the industry knows there were serious problems with the collateral valuation part of the business," said Jeff Schurman, TAVMA executive director. "Maintaining an arms-length relationship between the loan originator and appraiser is the centerpiece of the HVCC. To characterize AMCs as the centerpiece of the Code is simply false."

While Schurman admits that the HVCC is not perfect in that it upends long-standing appraiser/client relationships, he said that attacks levied against AMCs are baseless. These organizations ensure an arms-length transaction between loan officers and appraisers. They are the best way to assure an arms-length relationship between appraisers and their clients.

"AMCs are not the problem and there is no tangible data to suggest that they are," Schurman wrote in the letter. "The NYAG, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac determined that loan originators, including mortgage brokers, whose compensation depends upon the loan closing, were exerting improper influence on appraisers' work. Moreover, appraisers themselves vehemently accused loan originators and mortgage brokers of exerting improper influence."

In its letter, TAVMA calls the NAMB's efforts a "smear campaign" and asked NAMB to take its grievances with the Code to its authors, the GSEs and the Attorney General of New York. A number of politicians were copied on the letter, including Barney Frank, Paul Kanjorski, Christopher Dodd and New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.

For more information, visit www.tavma.org.