Changes are coming to the appraisal profession's
The Appraisal Foundation, which has been the subject of
Davids, who has held the number-two position at the foundation since 2013, will replace current President Dave Bunton, who has led the non-profit for more than 30 years. Davids officially takes the helm on March 31, while Bunton will move into a senior advisor role, according to the organization.
The Appraisal Foundation is a private organization tasked with writing the standards used by appraisers throughout the country thanks. A 1980s regulatory reform package granted it authority over professional qualifications and appraisal best practices. These valuations assess the collateral value of homes, a key factor banks and other mortgage originators must consider when making loans.
During a Monday meeting of the foundation's board of trustees, Dayton Nordin, who chaired the group's presidential search committee, said Davids was uniquely qualified to lead the foundation.
"There was a level of knowledge that we knew external candidates would struggle to bring, that Kelly was able to bring to the table, and we think that's very important, especially in this time of great change in the profession, a great deal of scrutiny in the profession," Nordin said during the meeting.
Davids's appointment came one week after Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director
Nordin, in an interview with American Banker, said the committee was well aware that the decision to hire from within would draw criticism, but ultimately opted to disregard those voices in pursuit of what it felt was best for the organization.
"We decided [the optics] couldn't be the only criteria in the only decision. It had a lot of weight, but it was one of many factors we had to think about," Nordin said. "We realized that the people that were going to be detractors, that were going to be negative about the process, were going to be negative about it no matter what."
In a written report issued last week, Chopra accused the foundation of ignoring calls from the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council — an interagency oversight body consisting of CFPB, Federal Reserve Board, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and National Credit Union Administration — to expand the search to include outside candidates.
"The Appraisal Foundation's failure to fully disclose basic details or meaningfully involve the [FFIEC's Appraisal Subcommittee] in this process gives no reason to be confident in the leadership selection process," Chopra wrote.
The comments were not the first issues Chopra has raised with the Appraisal Foundation. Last year, during one of four hearings on bias in the appraisal profession, the CFPB chief blasted the organization for having a
Nordin said the foundation makes itself accountable to many "stakeholders," including entities in and around the appraisal profession, as well as the Appraisal Subcommittee, also known as the ASC. He said the search committee and its outside consultant, the executive search firm Associate Strategies, were in regular contact with the ASC throughout much of the process.
Nordin said regulators' frustrations with the foundation stem from its unwillingness to relinquish control over its own hiring process to the government.
"We weren't willing to cede to the ASC control of the process, that would be totally inappropriate, and what they had sort of asked for at times," Nordin said. "But we were very open and reached out a number of times to ask for their input and ask for their thoughts on everything."
Yet, some in the appraisal profession who were hoping for a greater change within the organization were disappointed in the decision to hire from within.
Jonathan Miller, a New York-based appraiser, said the foundation's move showed that the groupfoundation has not been swayed by the many calls for reform in Washington and elsewhere in the country.
"The fact that there was no effort by the search committee to extend the process outside the organization shows that it was their intention to anoint Kelly Davids as Dave Bunton's successor from the beginning," Miller said. "This will only further deteriorate the public's trust in the organization and the profession."
