Teranet -- the people behind the REDX database -- will stop the controversial practice of recording brokers who drop the AMP designation, according to one network head, himself a victim of the policy.
Teranet -- the people behind the REDX database -- will stop the controversial practice of recording brokers who drop the AMP designation, according to one network head, himself a victim of the policy.
“By making this change to the database, Teranet is clearly demonstrating their commitment to providing only relevant information for its subscribers,” said Ron De Silva, CEO of Real Mortgage Associates, sharing information from a conversation he had with the service provider in late November. “I applaud their decision.”
De Silva was told by a Teranet account executive at a recent mortgage broker event about the planned change.
Teranet has recently come under fire for attaching reports to broker files on REDX that are specifically generated because of their decision to drop an AMP designation. That practice has effectively red-flagged brokers in the eyes of many lenders and other REDX subscribers, who use the reporting system to alert themselves to the fraudulent past of a mortgage professional.
Failing to renew an AMP designation in no way qualifies as fraud nor should it be used to evaluate a broker, say industry players.
De Silva is among them and is now being largely credited for bringing about any change in the way REDX uses AMP information. The broker network head went public on MortgageBrokerNews.ca earlier this year with concerns about his own REDX file and reports over his AMP membership.
Other brokers have grappled with the same problem, also appearing to win smaller skirmishes.
“I got my lawyer to write a letter to REDX, pretty much to the effect that the inquiries were detrimental to my business and we needed them to correct them,” Shawn Allen of Matrix Mortgage Global told MortgageBrokerNews.ca in October. “They ended up updating the REDX and removing the reports.”
Allen’s initial efforts to have his profile corrected were fruitless, leaving him little option but to threaten legal action.
MortgageBrokerNews.ca is awaiting confirmation from Teranet’s marketing department. However, according to a Teranet source who spoke to De Silva, REDX will no longer house AMP designation activity effective Q1 of next year.
