Corporate name change notice requirements under federal law

According to 12 C.F.R. § 1024.33, each transferor servicer and transferee servicer of any mortgage loan shall provide to the borrower a notice of transfer for any assignment, sale, or transfer of the servicing of the mortgage loan not less than 15 days before the effective date of the transfer of the servicing of the mortgage loan.

§ 1024.33 then goes into the contents required on the notice of transfer as well as the timing requirements for different types of transfers.

The notice requirements are clear when there is a transfer of servicers, however notice requirements are unclear when the servicer simply changes its name and no transfer of servicing occurs.

What are the servicer notice duties when the servicer simply changes it name?

According to 12 C.F.R. § 1024.33(b)(2)(1), the following transfers are excluded from the notice requirement because there is no change in the payee, address to which payment must be delivered, account number, or amount of payment due:

(A) A transfer between affiliates;

(B) A transfer that results from mergers or acquisitions of servicers or subservicers;

(C) A transfer that occurs between master servicers without changing the subservicer;

The analysis is based on either a real and substantive change of ownership or a change in borrower responsibility. If the address of the servicer, borrower account number, or amount of payment due does not change, then the servicer does not need to provide notice to borrower of the name change.

However, if any of those three changes occur, the servicer must send a notice that highlights all the changes to the borrower in accordance with § 1024.33.