CFPB Launches New Regulatory Implementation Page to Ensure Industry Is Ready to Comply With New Mortgage Rules

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) recently announced that it has launched a Regulatory Implementation page that consolidates all of the new 2013 mortgage rules and related implementation materials. CFPB indicates that the new web page is an effort to support rule implementation and ensure that the industry is ready to comply with the Dodd-Frank Act mortgage reforms and related rules. The Regulatory Implementation page provides various resources to assist with compliance including written guides, videos and quick reference charts. The written guides seek to make the content more accessible for industry constituents and highlight issues that small creditors, and those that work with them, might find helpful to consider when implementing the rules. The page features resources for the following Rules:

• Ability to Repay /Qualified Mortgage: this rule generally requires that lenders make a reasonable, good-faith determination that the consumer has a reasonable ability to repay the loan, considering factors like the consumer’s income/assets and employment status against the mortgage loan payment, ongoing expenses related to the mortgage loan and other debt obligations.
• 2013 Home Ownership and Equity Protections Act (HOEPA) Rule: this rule requires, among other things, that lenders of high-cost mortgages, give additional disclosures, avoid certain loan terms, and ensure the consumer receives additional protection, including homeownership counseling.
• Loan Originator Compensation: this rule generally regulates how compensation is paid to a loan originator in most closed-end mortgage transactions and imposes qualification requirements on loan originators.
• Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) Valuations: this rule amends the appraisal provisions of ECOA’s Regulation B and generally requires that lenders provide applicants for first-lien loans on a dwelling with copies of appraisals and other written valuations, developed in connection with the application.
• TILA Higher-Priced Mortgage Loans (HPML) Appraisals: this rule imposes various disclosure requirements on lenders that originate covered HPMLs.
• TILA Escrows: this rule lengthens to a minimum of five years the required period most creditors must maintain an escrow account for higher-priced mortgage loans. The rule offers regulatory relief for certain small creditors operating predominantly in rural or underserved markets
• TILA and RESPA Servicing: The Mortgage Servicing Rules address, among other things, general servicing policies, procedures, and requirements; loss mitigation; early intervention with delinquent consumers; interest rate adjustment notices for ARMs; and periodic statements for mortgage loans.

A complete table of the new mortgage rules and related compliance aids, titled Mortgage Rules at a glance, is also featured on the Regulatory Implementation page.