(AMCs) – Consumer Financial Services Watch

Are Valuation Review Standards on the Federal Banking Agencies’ Radar?

Jan 09 2012

By: Nanci L. Weissgold and Kerri M. Smith

Mandated by the Dodd-Frank Act, lenders and appraisal management companies (known as AMCs) are awaiting a series of joint rules addressing appraisal issues. While rules addressing pre-funding reviews of appraisals or evaluations is not a topic specifically required by the January 21, 2013 deadline, the FDIC’s Winter 2011 issue of Supervisory Insights hints that it may be addressed in the joint rule establishing minimum requirements for AMCs’ state registration. This may be a welcome development for regulated banking institutions subject to the revised Interagency Appraisal and Evaluation Guidelines (“Guidelines”). Those Guidelines, issued jointly by the federal banking agencies on December 2, 2010 (and effective on that date), update and replace existing guidance in response to changes in the real estate valuation industry and those mandated by the Dodd-Frank Act.

Customary and Reasonable Appraisal Rates Rule Faces State Opposition

Dec 15 2011

By: Nanci L. Weissgold and Kerri M. Smith

It is old news that the Dodd-Frank Act sets standards for pricing appraisals and subjects appraisal management companies, known as AMCs, to federal and state oversight. The news for 2012 is that lenders may need to contend with alternate state law requirements addressing the payment of fee appraisers, some of which may be inconsistent with federal law.

AMCs – the business entities that administer networks of independent appraisers to procure real estate appraisal assignments on behalf of lenders – are now subject to supervision by state governments through their appraisal boards. Under the Dodd-Frank Act, the federal banking agencies must jointly by rule establish minimum requirements to be applied by a state, including state registration and supervision of AMCs, and that appraisals be conducted in compliance with Section 129E of TILA. While states have three years from the date the federal agencies finalize their rules establishing minimum requirements, AMC registration laws now exist in 28 states.

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