Secure Insight has announced the results of their latest mortgage industry survey, gauging the impact of TRID and the new Closing Disclosure on their lending business. The survey was conducted March 7-14 of 1,342 mortgage industry executives nationwide. The overwhelming majority of executives we polled were prepared for TRID, and have trained their office staff to support the completion and delivery of the new consumer disclosures (93 percent), although the fact that seven percent of those polled were “not aware of CFPB TRID obligations” and “not full TRID compliant at this time” was somewhat surprising several months after the new disclosures became mandatory throughout the industry.
The impact of the new Closing Disclosure (CD) on lender-settlement agent business relationships, something the survey focused on, was positive. Respondents rated their experience working with settlement agents on the disclosure roll-out as generally very good. More than 80 percent of the poll respondents indicated that they had created specialized training programs for their agent partners to help ensure a smooth transition to the new disclosure form.
The biggest complaint lenders had was centered on increased operating costs. More than 57 percent of respondents have experienced “significant operational cost increases” while 36 percent saw some increase. These costs are impacting budgets, staffing needs and consumer rates and fees.
Unlike the poll of agents, however, lenders seemed to feel the new disclosures have had a positive impact on the consumer experience, with 82 percent stating that they felt the CD had a “positive impact on the overall transparency and efficiency of the closing process.” This result is counter to some reports early on that the overall impact was negative, and may reflect the passage of time, as well as internal operational adjustments.
This survey is one of a continuing series of industry polls conducted by Secure Insight over the past few years to gain the pulse of the industry on issues important to escrow and closing services regarding compliance and overall risk management.
