Industry vendor CoreLogic has decided to close its appraisal management company in Danvers, Mass., according to a memo obtained by ASR's sister publication National Mortgage News.
“All business operations of CoreLogic Valuation Services will be discontinued on or before Sept. 30, 2012,” the memo says. “This announcement does not impact or pertain to any of CoreLogic’s joint venture appraisal businesses.”
At deadline a company spokesman had not returned a telephone call about the matter.
The vendor has several AMC joint ventures with some of the nation’s megabanks, according to industry officials familiar with the company.
In a SEC filing earlier this year CoreLogic complained about regulation of the AMC business, saying “AVMs are now subject to more explicit and detailed quality control requirements, and copies of AVM reports will be required to be provided by creditors to loan applicants.”
It also complained that the use of broker price opinions will be “restricted” somewhat.
In the memo the firm says, “…we will continue to accept appraisal orders from our customers and will focus on completing all outstanding orders in a timely manner.”
Some factions of the lending industry have complained to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau about the megabanks controlling AMCs and funneling business to entities they partly control without disclosing ownership ties to mortgage applicants.
