[Adam] Hi, I'm Adam DeSanctis. This is the Mortgage Minute, the latest news from the Mortgage Bankers Association. We're coming to you live from MBA's annual convention and expo in Denver. Be sure to stop and say hi if you see me scurrying around this vast convention center.  Ahead of this week's conference, MBA released a new white paper that recommends reforms to what we believe is an outdated Section 8 of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, or RESPA. The white paper outlines why comprehensive reforms are necessary to modernize Section 8 to better serve consumers in the real estate finance industry in today's highly regulated mortgage market. Part one of the white paper describes how the current regulatory regime controlling referrals between settlement providers often leave service providers without a strong indication of whether they are complying with those requirements. Part two provides a background on how the passage of the Dodd Frank Act and subsequent reforms have made RESPA Section 8 outdated. And ineffective. Part three of the white paper proposes several solutions to modernize RESPA. The proposals include reforms and or updated guidance on marketing services, agreements, and desk rentals, digital marketing and lead generation, and affiliated business arrangements. Additional recommendations from us include items that the CFPB could act on now. We thank the Legal Issues and Regulatory Compliance Committee and all of our members that have contributed to the White Paper, and we stand ready to work with the CFPB, Congress, and industry stakeholders to reform this expensive and outdated compliance regime to the benefit of consumers and lenders alike. That's it for this week. Thank you for listening

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As a strategic public affairs and communications executive with nearly two decades of experience,  Adam has deep expertise in strategy, management, and media relations. He is widely considered to be an expert in a variety of communications, including advocacy, brand, executive, crisis, grassroots, and social media. In his career, he has been the MBA spokesperson on a wide variety of real estate research and advocacy-related issues, promoted MBA research and advocacy efforts to financial, political, and trade industry media and on MBA’s social media channels, and secured media opportunities for MBA leadership on key real estate trends and issues, generated media coverage for MBA’s research and data on mortgage applications, credit availability, homebuilder applications, mortgage forbearance/delinquencies, commercial real estate originations, and forecasts, and other industry analysis, developed key strategic initiatives for MBA’s organizational public affairs plan, media relations and member communications support for mPower, MBA’s Opens Doors Foundation and MBA’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs.