Posted by Notary On The Go on 11/19/13 11:54pm
Msg #493353

NNA SPW Stuff

We are a group of notary signing agents on a mission to respond to the press release by the Signing Professionals Workgroup (SPW) National Notary Association (NNA) released October 29, 2013, at the 100th Annual Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) convention.
The NNA announced a new Certified Signing Specialist status. This status will include:
1) Certified Signing Specialist Code of Conduct
2) Standardized Signing Script
3) Background Screening
4) Certification Examination
5) Errors and Omissions Insurance
This new certification is reported to be in response to the Consumer Financial Bureau Protection (CFPB) bulletin released in April 2012.
These new requirements will directly impact the NSA; however, NSAs were not provided any opportunity for input.
It appears that the code of conduct and script will place such control over the independent contractor that NSA may become an employee. Some states have already provided opinions that the independent NSA may be converted to the status of a W2 contract, statutory, part-time or temporary employee. This may vary depending on Federal and State labor codes.
We need your support to present the impact that this is going to have upon NSA’s around the country and to ensure that our input are an integral part of this process or any similar process in the future.

PLEASE JOIN US AND UNITE TO HAVE OUR VOICES HEARD
We are seeking the following skills to help us with our mission
Manage our up and coming website
Do you have experience with the CFPB, OCC, federal and state financial compliance regulations
Do you possess excellent writing skills
Attorneys specializing in contract law, antitrust law, labor law and civil litigation
A private investigator with access to a database (No Spaces. I can’t get the line space out)
Can you market our mission statement and educate other NSA

Reply by Notary On The Go on 11/19/13 11:58pm
Msg #493354

NSAU is now knows as ANSA

Notary Signing Agents Unite (NSAU) is a group of professional notary signing agents who’s mission is to provide a safe place for boots-on-the ground NSAs to educate each other and share information and resources in order to individually or collectively respond and adapt to current and future changes to our profession and the industry in which we operate. [site name] site created by NSAs for NSAs.

Objectives:

* To protect the rights of independent contractor,
* Provide input standards.....
*
*

Recent developments:

NSA Standards are Released
In response to the release of the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) bulletin (2012-03) and subsequent Office of the Comptroller of Currency (OCC) bulletin requiring lenders to improve oversight of “service providers,” an ad hoc group of major lenders and title and settlement agencies, pulled together by the National Notary Association (NNA) developed and published---behind closed doors, Standards to be imposed on Notary Signing Agents beginning late 2013 and through out 2014. [Links to press releases below]

Here are the facts about the process:

*The CFPB avoided the Administrative Procedures Act (APA) requiring public hearings and input by calling the new requirements "expectations" as opposed to the regulations that they are.

*The CFPB also avoided analyzing the impact of the regulations on small business as required by the Small Business Administration (SBA}.

*Behind closed doors, the SPW and the NNA devised standards that include an expanded and more frequent collection of consumer reports on NSA, annual exams, an arbitrary and capricious “point system” for criminal and driving violations, and a Code of Conduct that dictates what NSA may say while conducting the signing, reaches into the business operations and restricts or limits their advertising and marketing activities.

* Contrary to hundreds of requests, the SPW will not disclose who their members are so we can direct our concerns to them individually; we are only allowed to write to the group as a whole through a website that is controlled and filtered by the NNA.

* Behind closed doors, the SPW and the NNA devised a Point System that arbitrarily assigns "points" to selected criminal and driving offenses; a system that can be used to disqualify a NSA's certification. BackgroundsOnline, the primary contractor for the NNA state that they are "unaware" of any other entity that applies a point system to background checks. Further,there is no information from SPW and the NNA that indicates an individual's "score" will be disclosed or explained nor is there an appeal process.

*Though the NNA is a voluntary membership association, no information was released to its members until after copyrighting of the Standards in late September 2013. The Standards were released on October 29, 2013. No review or comment period by NSA has been released.

Reply by jojo_MN on 11/20/13 12:20am
Msg #493356

Re: NSAU is now knows as ANSA

Since the SPW will not respond to the hundreds of requests, maybe each of the boards of directors and executive committees from the member companies should get letters and emails from notaries that are concerned about the issue. I don't like the idea of all of them getting slammed with it; however, since the NNA will be otherwise filtering all correspondence even if we did have the names, maybe this is the only way to get our voices heard.

I have been facilitating signings for every one of these companies since I started my business in 2002. If it were not for Notary Signing Agents, the big national lenders would only be able to close loans in their brick and mortar facilities. There would be no home signings unless these lenders or title companies wanted to send their on-staff employees on the road.

Even though I appreciate all of the business I have gotten from them (the lenders and title companies), I really want them to see just how much this SPW and the NNA are hurting their business more than helping. There are so many other ways to go about making sure the CFPB and OCC regulations are carried out without giving more power and putting more money into the hands of the NNA. Remember, the NNA has absolutely no powers as far as the government is concerned.

Reply by Darlin_AL on 11/20/13 9:24am
Msg #493391

jojo-amen sister, especially the last para n/m

Reply by JanetK_CA on 11/20/13 3:04pm
Msg #493443

Ditto that!!! n/m

Reply by MAC/WA on 11/20/13 11:57am
Msg #493412

That is my original writing for a website, including the n/m

Reply by MAC/WA on 11/20/13 11:59am
Msg #493414

Re: That is my original writing for a website, including the

mission statement I drafted.

Reply by MikeC/TX on 11/20/13 7:38pm
Msg #493483

Re: NSAU is now knows as ANSA

"*The CFPB avoided the Administrative Procedures Act (APA) requiring public hearings and input by calling the new requirements "expectations" as opposed to the regulations that they are."

Or, the SPW was formed based on the mistaken belief that the new requirements were regulations, as opposed to the "expectations" that they really are. I think there is some over-reaching here on the part of the NNA. They saw an opportunity and grabbed it, but as far as I know, no state or federal agency has given their blessing to this thing.

"* Behind closed doors, the SPW and the NNA devised a Point System that arbitrarily assigns "points" to selected criminal and driving offenses; a system that can be used to disqualify a NSA's certification. BackgroundsOnline, the primary contractor for the NNA state that they are "unaware" of any other entity that applies a point system to background checks. Further,there is no information from SPW and the NNA that indicates an individual's "score" will be disclosed or explained nor is there an appeal process."

To quote Dean Wormer (Animal House): You are all now on double-secret probation.