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Many community lenders across the United States deal with CPI every day. It’s a popular strategy used to insure consumer auto portfolios, and in many cases is considered the paradigm for that type of portfolio protection. At Unitas Financial Services, we make no secret of the fact that we believe blanket insurance is a superior product that holds numerous advantages for lenders, from easing compliance considerations to increasing lending efficiency. We love to expound on how blanket products are a lender’s best friend, but perhaps we don’t talk enough about the advantages blanket coverage has over CPI from a borrower’s perspective. To that end, I’ve laid out some differences between blanket coverage and CPI and how they affect consumers.

Charles Kettering liked to say, “People are very open-minded about new things, as long as they're exactly like the old ones.” 

As an American innovator (inventor of the cash register and the electric starter for automobiles), he lived each day to rethink the way things were done. The daily musings of our team here at Unitas aren’t much different. Insurance is our world. It is important, but it shouldn’t take time away from the essential, impactful work that our community lenders are focused on each day. However, as we expand our presence across the country, we’re shocked to discover just how many lenders have insurance programs that are actually slowing them down.

In this post we dive into Risk Rating 2.0, FEMA's National Flood Insurance Program's new risk model. What began as a program in 1968, FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), is undergoing a massive modernization effort in order to better assess a property’s flood risk. Risk Rating 2.0, first introduced in 2019, is the first major change to how properties are assessed for flood risk under the NFIP since the early 1970s.

The Mortgage Bankers Association estimated 2.7 million homeowners are currently in some form of forbearance, and for almost four months now, lender forbearance portfolio volume has hovered between 5% and 6% — since the MBA survey began in May. Managing all those forbearances has put a tremendous amount of work on mortgage servicers as some companies have had to hire hundreds of employees to carry out more customer support, putting a heavy emphasis on avoiding foreclosure.

There are many adjectives I have heard to describe 2020. Some of these may be considered R-rated so I am reluctant to repeat them here! However, some of the G-rated adjectives are wild, busy, unusual, odd, strange, and frustrating. One word I have not heard to describe 2020 was uneventful.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating effect on economies globally. Almost daily, there's news of businesses closing down and employees being laid off or facing salary cuts.