[David] Llet’s get into talking with Alice about the legislative update, what you have, what’s happening there, and also anything on the regulatory side. I have a question for you, Alice, after, but let’s get your report first.
[Alice] Sure. Hopefully my sound is okay as I’m driving, but yeah. You’re doing great. I actually wanted to frame today with a discussion for the group, because last week we got the Supreme Court decisions on two fronts. We did get that the the Federal Reserve did get its kind of set-aside that an executive, the president would not be able to immediately fire anybody on the Federal Reserve. But that they did keep in place or add new power for the president. And keep in mind, my thoughts on this are not because it’s President Trump. I think way ahead- … to any president, right? When you say we just changed the power of that role, that’s going to last no matter who’s in that office. And for me, as someone who’s watched regulators, watched regulations for f- over 40 years in the mortgage industry, there was always that little bit of reassurance that it was not at the whim of someone else as to why regulations were put in place or how they were implemented. It’s hard enough with Congress not knowing our business, and trying to educate them as regulations come into play. Now that this has changed, I’m really curious as to how this group feels about it. I was, I’ll be honest, I was really disappointed, because that distance between the executive branch and those agencies, I understand the downside. No one wants that the executive is stuck with somebody they can’t work with or someone who’s really incapable, but I thought there was ways to get someone who was, a real disservice to the role out. But the way the wording is now it seems like it could be just on a whim, would makes it difficult to really have those agencies not feel at times possibly that they’re involved in a political push and pull. I was curious if, how this group felt. There are a lot of smart people on this call. I was curious if you felt that was a big change or how that change would affect the mortgage industry. Marc, you got a thought?
[Marc] Interesting concern because I can see the validity of it happening on a day-to-day basis because I think what’s affecting our environment so much in that we’ve had the turnstiles at the airport. We’ve got people going in and out so fast and things. There’s no consistency anymore, and that by itself creates enough turmoil that things are slowed down and hard to get anything done when there’s no consistency in dealing with the same person over and over again on it. So I think there is a concern about that and how it’s being dealt with, and I think it could have the effects that Alice is insinuating it could, or really could.
[David] Yeah, Alice, I’m really thrilled that you made the comment. This is not a President Trump issue. It’s one where we need to be considering this for no matter who’s in office. Bill, your thoughts?
[Bill] This gets dicey. And I first, I agree with Alice’s basic premise of you’ve gotta look at everything with a future lens as well as a present lens, number one. Number two, I still kinda cling to that, baby blanket of we have three branches of government for a reason. Yep. And, I think there’s a lot focused on Trump right now, but so much of it is because, just in general, Congress has become a failure. Yeah. And I think that creates a lot of the angst on both the executive and the judiciary side. And, when things are set up and folks are appointed for certain length terms, somebody way smarter than me designed it to try and find a balance. And, we’re not a UK style of government where you vote in entirely one party or another. And if there are things that need to be fixed, but I’m not sure that allowing single authority to make all those changes ultimately is healthy because, again, go back to point number one of that, you get happy when the pendulum’s swinging the other way, and it gets really painful when it hits you on the rebound.
[David] Makes good points. Really good points. Alan, you got any thoughts
[Allen] I think everyone’s had some great opinion. And I I’m aligned with what everyone has said here. I kinda stick to the same topic every time I consider the market and the compliance end of it and everything we have going on. The reality is we’ve been dealing with the same challenges for how long? And, we have to continue to work with those challenges and help homeowners get into their homes. We’ve had first-time homebuyers for a long time. I think we still don’t do a really good job in helping veterans. There’s great programs for them and great ways for them to become first-time homebuyers and there’s still other programs out there, and we have to make sure we’re educating our origination team and helping them educate their borrowers to do better. There’s plenty of opportunity out there while we continue to figure out these challenges.
[David] Yeah. Good point. Alice, anything else going on that we should be paying attention to?
[Alice] Dave, with the Fourth of July holiday and everyone out, I’m gonna leave it at that for today. Hope you all had a wonderful Fourth. Yeah. And we’ll just pick it up next week. Thanks for dialing in. I appreciate you doing so even while you’re driving. I appreciate it very much.
Alice Alvey, Master CMB
She handles development of their World Class Training program designed to support UHM partners and organizational effectiveness.
Prior to UHM, Alice served as Senior Vice President at Indecomm leading the Indecomm-Mortgage U division, Internal QA and Compliance and SaaS technologies. Indecomm acquired Mortgage U in 2013, where Alice was President/Co-founder, providing training and consulting since 1996. Prior to MU she served as SVP of Operations at a national bank overseeing operations for wholesale, retail and correspondent from underwriting through servicing, and compliance.
She has been in the trenches of mortgage lending operations from application through servicing for over 30 years. Her authoring work in training content, policies and procedures and the FHA/VA Practical guides illustrates her ability to bridge regulatory requirements with day-to-day operations.
Alice has been a weekly contributor to the Lykken on Lending show since its beginning in April 2009 and has made her weekly contributions to 450+ episodes!