Plaza Home Mortgage Inc. has announced that it has enhanced its risk management policies and procedures governing its wholesale lending business by ordering third-party risk reports on settlement agents having access to a borrower’s loan documents and mortgage proceeds. The process will be managed for Plaza by Secure Settlements Inc. (SSI), the first vendor management firm to specialize in closing table risk.
Plaza Home Mortgage chose the SSI Quick Check tool to evaluate the backgrounds, licensing, insurance and trust accounts of agents as a method to identify potential threats before a closing takes place. Quick Check provides lenders with a comprehensive online risk report within 24 hours, alerting lenders of risk issues before a wire is sent and a document package is delivered to a closing agent. The proprietary evaluation process combines automated data analysis with live reviews by trained analysts for the most accurate and informative risk analytics in the industry.
“As a leader in nationwide wholesale lending, our company continually seeks to not just meet but to exceed regulatory expectations for quality control and loan quality assurance," said Michael Fontaine, CFO at Plaza Home Mortgage. "We take the management of third-party service providers seriously in terms of operational risk, investor confidence and consumer protection. We spent several months evaluating various providers to help us address settlement agent risk and we were impressed with what Secure Settlements has to offer in its Quick Check product.”
“We are pleased and honored to have been chosen by Plaza Home Mortgage for these critical risk management services," said SSI President Andrew Liput. "In our extensive dealings with the Plaza leadership team, we saw, firsthand, their serious commitment to quality control, consumer protection and overall loan quality assurance. We are proud to be their partner in this important endeavor.”
