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IMBA President’s Message
Legislators at the state and national levels seem to be busier than ever debating key issues impacting the mortgage industry. A recent court ruling has cast some doubt over whether the recently confirmed Richard Cordray, a recess appointee, will continue to serve as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and if so, how much authority Congress will permit him to have. At the state level, legislators debate bills that affect mortgage lenders’ lien status, as well as collection of judgments and delinquent assessments. Your IMBA will continue to monitor closely the key events and keep you informed of changes that impact our industry. Just a little more than two weeks ago, IMBA held it first statewide Compliance Seminar in Indianapolis. The seminar included speakers from the CFPB, Indiana Department of Financial Institutions, Mortgage Compliance Managers, and title industry leaders. It took much planning and effort to organize this event and was over a year in the making. As the Compliance Committee made its preliminary arrangements for the venue, they initially contracted to use a facility that would accommodate 50 attendees. It was clear that when registrations for this event began to come in, our facility size was not going to be adequate. As registrations topped 90 attendees, we had to assess our facility needs again. On the day of the seminar, 130 participants registered for the event! There was a diverse population of attendees, which underlies the current importance of compliance, and the general response to the seminar from the surveys that attendees completed was very favorable. The information content was helpful and the speakers were knowledgeable overall, (although are CFPB speaker was legally obligated to be vague at times). As the seminar wound down and the regulators left, the day concluded with a roundtable discussion lead by IMBA member compliance experts. This lively panel discussion made clear that our members do seek a forum to share compliance concerns, challenges, and best practices with one another. With the recent momentum of this January Compliance Seminar, IMBA will be working to establish a periodic conference call forum focused on lender-specific compliance topics. Stay tuned for more details! In my opinion, the priority for any trade or professional association is to bring value to its members. IMBA is no different. Your Board of Directors and Executive Director continue to be committed to making your association a value-added proposition. Growing the organization through new membership is certainly an important goal of IMBA. But we understand that substantiation of IMBA’s value to its members is evidenced by renewals of existing members. It is for that reason I share with you that the IMBA has had at least 95% of its members renew their commitment to the organization for the third straight year! I also would be remiss if I didn’t thank my Board of Directors and Executive Director for all the hard work they’ve done to make your IMBA the organization you want it to be. A little over a month into 2013, there are still economic challenges before us. Despite the steps to avoid even larger tax increases for most US households, GDP growth in the first half of 2013 is likely to be soft as the effects of the payroll tax increase, sequestered spending cuts, and other reductions of government spending start to kick in. While some of the economic data shows reason for optimism, employment data suggests that labor market conditions are still weak and workers are not yet returning to the labor force. Though housing prices continue to show signs of strength, until there is a greater amounts of labor participation and job creation, mortgage originations will be relatively weaker in the near term.
David Gedde, CRMP First Republic Mortgage 1251 Eddy St., Suite 200 South Bend, IN 46617 1-260-440-2299 dave@firstrepublicmortgage.com
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