Best Practices

Title Insurance and Settlement Company Best Practices as recommended by the American Land Title Association (ALTA) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

On April 13th, 2012 the Consumer Protection Bureau (CFPB) submitted bulletin 2012-03 to the public. The bulletin ultimately placed liability on lending institutions for the actions of any of their service providers. Summarized except from CFPB Bulletin 2012-03:

The CFPB expects supervised Bank to oversee their business relationships with service providers in a manner that ensures compliance with federal consumer financial law, which is designated to protect the interest of consumers and avoid consumer law.

In other words the banks will now be held responsible for their service providers.

As a result, in January of 2013 the American Land Title Association (ALTA) issued a set of “Best Practices” for title companies to follow. This comprehensive set of guidelines when followed would help lending institutions become confident that their title service provider are doing everything in their power to adhere to federal consumer laws and minimize the potential legal risk posed to financial institutions as a result of CFPB 2012-03. Below is summary of ALTA’s best practices which Fidelity Land Title Agency of Cincinnati, Inc. currently adheres to.

Best Practices:

1. Establish and maintain current license(s) as required to conduct the business of title insurance and settlement services.
2. Adopt and maintain appropriate written procedures and controls for Escrow Trust Accounts allowing for electronic verification of reconciliation.
3. Adopt and maintain a written privacy policy and information security program to protect non-public personal information as required by local, state and federal law.
4. Adopt standard real estate settlement procedures and policies that ensure compliance with federal and state consumer financial laws as applicable.
5. Adopt and maintain written procedures related to title policy production, delivery, reporting and premium remittance.
6. Maintain appropriate professional insurance and fidelity coverage.
7. Adopt and maintain procedures for resolving consumer complaints.

For more info on how Fidelity Land Title Agency of Cincinnati, Inc. adheres to each specific standard please contact us.