DFPI Escrow Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes

education

ESCROW ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING December 5, 2023 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM 300 S. Spring St., 15th floor conference room, Los Angeles, CA 90013 Or via. Microsoft Team Department of Financial Protection and Innovation Represented by: Sheila Oliver, Deputy Commissioner Paul Liang, Assistant Deputy Commissioner Sultanna Wan, Special Administrator - Licensing Gary Suzuki, Special Administrator – Regulatory Milad Farag, Special Administrator – Regulatory Committee Members: Claire Bartos, Las Brisas Escrow, Inc. / Immediate Past Chairp

licensing

of Financial Protection and Innovation Represented by: Sheila Oliver, Deputy Commissioner Paul Liang, Assistant Deputy Commissioner Sultanna Wan, Special Administrator - Licensing Gary Suzuki, Special Administrator – Regulatory Milad Farag, Special Administrator – Regulatory Committee Members: Claire Bartos, Las Brisas Escrow, Inc. / Immediate Past Chairperson EIC * Heidi Cassel, Solaris Escrow, Inc. / Medium Sized Escrow Company Jason Watrous, Freedom Escrow / Chairperson EAFC ** Laura Padilla, Escrow Consultants-Century City / Vice Chairperson EAFC ** Juliana Tu, Viva Escrow! Inc. / Business

examinations

illa of Escrow Consultants-Century City as representatives of EAFC on the advisory committee. Liang also Page 1 of 3 introduced Milad Farag as the new escrow law program examination manager. Milad Farag and Gary Suzuki will manage the examination function of the escrow law program. Liang stated the four vacant advisory positions were expected to be filled by commissioner’s appointee soon. Those four positions are an attorney with escrow agent clients, representative for medium-sized companies, representative for company with other business ownership, and a representative for business with a sp

enforcement

e the meeting was running out of time. 5. Ad Hoc Committee progress Garcia gave a brief update for the status on Ad Hoc committee’s review of CPA auditing procedures. 6. Enforcement Actions and Licensing Update Liang briefly went over enforcement cases in the current quarter and licensing statistics. It appears the number of licensed companies and licensed locations continued to increase comparing to the same period in the prior year. The industry grew in a slow pace. 7. Public comments A member of the public asked if the escrow program will license crypto escrow service providers after the pa