ALTA Meets With Federal Reserve Staff. National Lien Registry Not Intended to Replace Local Recording On Wednesday, ALTA met with staff in the Federal Reserve Board’s Division of Consumer and Community Affairs to clarify the January 4, 2012, white paper, entitled “The U.S. Housing Market: Current Conditions and Policy Considerations.” Included in this housing white paper were two paragraphs that suggested a national lien registry be created. There was little explanation of the concept, what a national registry would do, who would use it or for what purposes. During the meeting, ALTA explained how the lack of details in the white paper led the industry to believe that the Fed was calling for an end to the recording of property interests in local public records in accordance with state law. Federal Reserve staff quickly said that was not the intent and explained that their suggestion was meant to foster discussion about how to make information contained in local recording systems more user-friendly to consumers and policymakers. Fed staff explained that the “registry” would not be used to replace state law requirements for perfecting Liens through recording in local public records. Rather, it would connect locally recorded documents with real time information about the mortgage loan, including the outstanding loan balance, whether there are any second mortgages or HELOCs outstanding against the collateral, as well as contact information for the current servicer and noteholder. While there are no plans for the Fed or anyone else to develop and institute this system, the Fed envisions it being a public utility open to regulators, consumers and lenders. The clarification was helpful, but we expect this to be the first in a series of meetings with interested stakeholders. Please reach out to me if you would like to learn more about the meeting and the Fed’s white paper at justin@alta.org.
