WASHINGTON Mortgage lenders received welcome news in the form of clarifications and changes to the voluminous new mortgage rules released in January by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
According to Ballard Spahr LLP, the CFPB has “kept up with its promise” to provide further guidance to the industry on the recent mortgage loan rules, specifically the ability-to-repay/qualified mortgage rule and the mortgage servicing rules. Comments on the proposal will be due 30 days after it is published in the Federal Register.
Among the proposal’s highlights:
The CFPB proposes what Ballard Spahr termed “some helpful changes” to provisions concerning the temporary qualified mortgage status for loans that are eligible for sale to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.
It provides additional guidance on calculating whether the consumer satisfies the maximum 43% debt-to-income ratio applicable to the general qualified mortgage provisions.
It clarifies the relationship of the mortgage servicing rules in Regulation X under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act to state law servicing requirements, as well as the small servicer exemption in the Regulation X rules and the Regulation Z servicing rules under the Truth in Lending Act.
The law firm noted the CFPB does not plan to address questions that it received because the Bureau believes the final rules “already answer those questions.” For more information, Ballard Spahr’s Consumer Financial Services Group produces CFPB Monitor, a blog that focuses exclusively on important CFPB developments, which can be found at
