Office of the Assistant Secretary for Housing-Federal Housing Commissioner; Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA); Statement of Policy 1996-1, Regarding Computer Loan Origination Systems (CLOs)

This Statement of Policy sets forth the Department's interpretation of Section 8 of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) and its implementing regulations with regard to the applicability of RESPA to payments for services from certain computer systems, frequently called CLOs, used by settlement service providers in connection with the origination of mortgage loans or the provision of other settlement services covered by RESPA. This statement explains the statutory and regulatory framework for HUD's treatment of payments to CLOs. In reading this policy statement, the reader should be aware that HUD's RESPA rule was recently streamlined through a separate rulemaking. 61 FR 13232 (Mar. 26, 1996). This streamlining caused several provisions of the RESPA rule to be renumbered. Except as is otherwise indicated in the context of the policy statement, this policy statement refers to provisions by their current section number, incorporating all revisions to date as a result of the streamlining and today's rulemaking, published elsewhere in the Federal Register.