Mortgage Privacy and Compliance: A Competitive Advantage

Maintaining the privacy of customer data is non-negotiable in the mortgage industry. Aside from helping to avoid non-compliance penalties and fines, an emphasis on maintaining customer privacy is an easy way to differentiate your business from the competition. 

Mortgage Privacy Laws and Regulations

The U.S. mortgage supply chain is a vulnerable target for data breaches. The entire mortgage process—from pre-qualification to closing—requires sharing non-public personal information (NPI), which includes personally identifiable information (PII) such as name, address, and SSN, as well as data needed to conduct a financial transaction (e.g. account numbers and balances) or provide a financial service (e.g. credit report). 

Because of the sheer amount of sensitive data shared throughout the loan process, mortgage companies must comply with a web of consumer and financial data privacy regulations including Gramm Leach Bliley Act (GLBA) Regulation P, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), GDPR, CCPA, and other state privacy laws. But keeping up with new and emerging rules and regulations isn’t easy. 90% of organizations say they encounter challenges when it comes to managing compliance, governance, and data regulations.

Privacy as a Competitive Advantage

However, instead of viewing privacy regulation as a headwind to compliance and business growth, privacy can be a significant competitive advantage when leveraged to help foster trust throughout the mortgage (or refinancing) process. Privacy ultimately helps strengthen customer loyalty and trust by providing customers with the assurance that their sensitive data is protected at all times by the financial institution(s) with whom they choose to do business.

A recent Deloitte survey indicates that 73% of consumers are more likely to be open to or neutral about sharing data if they are satisfied with privacy policies explaining how data is used. By simply educating consumers about how their data is used, organizations can increase customer engagement and earn their trust. Without transparency, consumers struggle to understand what data an organization collects and how they use it. 

Virtru for Privacy Protection

With this in mind, it’s important to find a data protection solution that addresses the data privacy challenges your organization is facing and that fits into your existing data sharing workflow. Look for one that provides the right technology features—such as encryption, key management, and access controls—to help you manage your data in the cloud and comply with data privacy regulations.

Traditional approaches to collecting data needed for mortgage processing are time-consuming and often involve secure portals that require additional logins, or worse, paper copies of sensitive data. Virtru unlocks seamless, secure NPI sharing workflows throughout the mortgage process to ensure privacy and compliance. 

With Virtru for Gmail or Outlook, borrowers, brokers, originators, title companies, and other authorized individuals can easily share sensitive data via email, without the need for additional logins or passwords, and ensure that it remains protected throughout the full mortgage transaction process. End-to-end encryption and access controls ensure the true privacy of sensitive data and that regulatory compliance requirements are met. 

Virtru helps accelerate privacy initiatives with data-centric security, wherever data is shared. Together, these features protect sensitive data, including NPI and PII and ultimately work to help build customer trust and loyalty, as well as the organization’s competitive advantage. , wherever data is shared.

End-to-End Encryption

Encrypt Gmail and Outlook messages and Google Drive files directly within the client, preventing access by Google, Microsoft, and other unauthorized parties.

Persistent Protection and Control

Disable forwarding, set expiration, and revoke access immediately. Watermark files to deter data leaks. Apply persistent protection to maintain control wherever private files are shared, while giving collaborators seamless, secure access through the Secure Reader.

Granular Audit Trails

View when and where private email messages, attachments, and files have been accessed during their lifecycle. Adapt controls as access requirements evolve throughout private data-sharing workflows.

Data Loss Prevention (DLP)

Configure DLP rules that scan emails and attachments to detect private data, then automatically enforce encryption and access controls that persist throughout collaboration workflows to ensure privacy.