[Anonymous]

We provide a link in the Mortgage Loan Originators email with the first communication with the applicant when requesting an ARM product.
Our auditors are stating that we need to provide a hard copy.
Does the regulation require a hard copy if a link is provided?

[rcooper]

I’m not sure of the exact circumstances, so it depends. A link is acceptable if you meet the criteria I put in bold below. (And you do not need to comply with ESIGN for this disclosure.)

Comment 1026.19(b)-2(v). Form of electronic disclosures provided on or with electronic applications. Creditors must provide the disclosures required by this section (including the brochure) on or with a blank application that is made available to the consumer in electronic form, such as on a creditor’s Internet Web site. Creditors have flexibility in satisfying this requirement. There are various methods creditors could use to satisfy the requirement. Whatever method is used, a creditor need not confirm that the consumer has read the disclosures. Methods include, but are not limited to, the following examples:

A. The disclosures could automatically appear on the screen when the application appears;

B. The disclosures could be located on the same web page as the application (whether or not they appear on the initial screen), if the application contains a clear and conspicuous reference to the location of the disclosures and indicates that the disclosures contain rate, fee, and other cost information, as applicable;

C. Creditors could provide a link to the electronic disclosures on or with the application as long as consumers cannot bypass the disclosures before submitting the application. The link would take the consumer to the disclosures, but the consumer need not be required to scroll completely through the disclosures; or

D. The disclosures could be located on the same web page as the application without necessarily appearing on the initial screen, immediately preceding the button that the consumer will click to submit the application.

[rcooper]

After I read your question again, I think I might have misread the first time. Is this an electronic application or a paper application?

[Author]

Posts