The company behind REDX is now answering a question CAAMP has been slow to, asserting the association does not directly file incident reports on brokers who drop the AMP designation.
The company behind REDX is now answering a question CAAMP has been slow to, asserting the association does not directly file incident reports on brokers who drop the AMP designation.
"Public information collected ... can include, but is not limited to information about disciplinary, enforcement and certain legal actions taken by regulatory bodies and self-regulatory organizations that oversee professionals in the mortgage ... industry," Paul McGowan, a national marketing manager with Teranet, the company responsible for REDX, told MortgageBrokerNews.ca Friday, "CAAMP endorses REDX, but is not a reporting member of REDX.
"CAAMP does not file specific incident reports regarding its members."
The comments directly answer the concerns of brokers alarmed by REDX reports highlighting their decision to let an AMP designation lapse. Those reports -- whether intended to or not -- get viewed as black marks against a mortgage professional by some lenders. Generally, those broker partners use the system to vet mortgage professionals for fraudulent behaviour.
But a broker's decision to hold or drop the AMP designation should not result in any report at all, charge brokers responding to a MortgageBrokerNews.ca story Thursday.
The article details the concerns of RMAI network head Ron De Silva and several incident reports attached to his own name after he declined to renew his AMP certification.
“I really think most brokers are simply unaware that this can and does happen,” De Silva told MortgageBrokerNews.ca Wednesday. "It doesn’t seem to fit with the whole purpose of REDX, which as stated on the website, is to 'Prevent Fraud, Manage Risk, Protect your interests.'”
CAAMP answered those concerns Thursday by calling AMP licensing records public information, without specifically addressing whether it files incident reports.
For De Silva's part, he is worried any marks against him could put off lenders and underwriters who fail to study the exact nature of the reports but use their mere existence to disqualify a broker.
“What’s even more of a concern for me,” he said, “is the many other brokers who may have had the same thing happen to them just because they made the decision not to renew their AMP designation and that they don’t even know a report was generated. All brokers should request a free copy of their own Redx report by completing and submitting the online form at www.Redx.ca.”
De Silva is just the latest mortgage professional to sound the alarm over what many argue is the growing abuse of the REDX system, which relies on lenders and, indeed, information made public by CAAMP to generate incident reports as red flags to other REDX members. Brokers are also concerned that under REDX rules only the member who posted the report can remove it."
REDX subscribers are, in fact, encouraged to distinguish between various forms of reporting on the database, suggests McGowan.
"Licensing information collected by Teranet can include the addition or expiration of any accredited professional license," he writes. "License reports created in REDX are not reports of (mortgage file) misrepresentation.
"Subscribers to the REDX Service are always advised to consult the source for the most up to date and current information."
