Work together and speak up about concerns you may have about how the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will enforce its requirement that lenders oversee all of their vendors. These were two of the main take aways from a session on lender liability at the 2013 National Settlement Services Summit on June 11. The group also discussed how settlement agents could start working with lenders now, despite the lack of clarity from the CFPB at this point.

“I think the stage is set, it’s time to take action even though the specifics of this vender due diligence, management and oversight have not been completely fleshed out,” said Francis “Trip” Riley, of the Princeton, N.J., office of Saul Ewing. “I think it’s time for you guys to start talking to, on the front end, your creditors and mortgage servicers about what they expect from you if they haven’t already, and on the back end, if you have third party vendors yourselves who talk to consumers, you should do the same thing your creditors and mortgage servicers are doing to you.”

Penny Reed, vice president, Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, agreed, and noted that while lenders are working on third-party vendor issues, they are also dealing with several other rulemakings that have nothing to do with the settlement industry.