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Question: As a mortgage lender, what sort of training should we be requiring of management and employees?

Answer:

Mortgage lenders have a degree of discretion with regard to the frequency and content of compliance training requirements for management and employees. However, training must be kept up-to-date, ongoing and comprehensive. The CFPB’s Compliance Management Review Examination Procedures indicates:

“Board members should receive sufficient information to enable them to understand the entity’s responsibilities and the commensurate resource requirements.

Management and staff should receive specific, comprehensive training that reinforces and helps implement written policies and procedures. Requirements for compliance with Federal consumer financial laws, including prohibitions against unlawful discrimination and unfair, deceptive, and abusive acts and practices, should be incorporated into training for all relevant officers and employees, including audit personnel.

Examiners should seek to determine whether:

1. Compliance training is comprehensive, timely, and specifically tailored to the particular responsibilities of the staff receiving it, including those responsible for product development, marketing and customer service.
2. The compliance training program is updated proactively in advance of the rollout of new or changed products or the effective date of new or changed consumer protection laws and regulations to ensure that all staff is aware of compliance responsibilities.
3. Training is consistent with policies and procedures and designed to reinforce those policies and procedures.
4. Compliance professionals have access to training that is necessary to administer a compliance program that is tailored to the supervised entity’s risk profile, business strategy, and operations.”

Mortgage lenders must maintain records of training to demonstrate compliance with the foregoing and ensure management and employees timely and successfully complete training. Note, both federal and state examiners are reviewing training logs.

Training topics and content covered may vary depending on position, but should cover relevant mortgage compliance topics, such as anti-money laundering, fair lending, ECOA, security awareness, privacy, complaint management, UDAAP, RESPA, and TRID. This is not an all-inclusive list.