CFPB Spring 2021 Rulemaking Agenda

On 6/11/2021, the CFPB announced that they had released their Spring 2021 agenda, which is part of the Spring 2021 Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions.

In their agenda, the CFPB lists the following rules and stages of their rulemaking process:

  • Long-Term Actions:

    • Artificial Intelligence

    • Mortgage Servicing (Regulation X)

  • Prerule Stage:

    • Consumer Access to Financial Records

    • Property Assessed Clean Energy Financing

  • Proposed Rule Stage:

    • Business Lending Data (Regulation B)

    • Amendments to FIRREA Concerning Appraisals (Automated Valuation Models)

    • Mortgage Servicing COVID-19 Relief (Regulation X)

  • Final Rule Stage:

    • Debt Collection Rule

    • Amendments to Regulation Z to Facilitate Transition From LIBOR

  • Completed Actions List:

    • Disclosure of Records and Information

    • Higher-Priced Mortgage Loan Escrow Exemption

    • Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (Regulation C)

    • Qualified Mortgage Definition Under the Truth in Lending Act (Regulation Z)

    • Role of Supervisory Guidance

    • Payday Disclosure Rule

One item of note in this list is that several long-term actions that were on the Spring 2020 list have been removed, including:

  • Abusive Acts and Practices

  • E-Sign Act Requirements

  • Loan Originator Compensation: Possible topics for consideration may include whether creditors may lower loan originator compensation for originating state housing finance authority loans and whether creditors may decrease a loan originator’s compensation due to the loan originator’s error.

From the preamble to the regulatory agenda:

“The Bureau is under interim leadership pending the appointment and confirmation of a permanent Director. In light of this status, Bureau leadership is prioritizing during coming months the continuation of certain ongoing rulemakings and a new rulemaking on mortgage servicing to provide relief for consumers facing hardship due to COVID-19 and the related economic crisis. Those projects are described further below. The Bureau expects that its new Director, when confirmed, will assess further what regulatory actions the Bureau should prioritize to best further our consumer protection mission and mandate, particularly in light of the ongoing pandemic and resulting economic crisis and the Bureau’s commitment to promoting racial equity. Accordingly, the Bureau anticipates that the Fall 2021 Agenda will reflect the permanent Bureau Director’s priorities. In the meantime, the Bureau’s Acting Director has decided to reclassify as “inactive” or “withdrawn” certain rulemakings that had been listed in previous editions of the Bureau’s Unified Agenda in the expectation that final decisions on whether and when to proceed with such projects will be made in the coming months. This change in designation is not intended to signal a substantive decision on the merits of the projects but may reflect a change in priority.”

The CFPB announcement can be found here.

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