Real estate lenders and agents struggling with the new TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure rules will have the opportunity to suggest improvements to the rules this summer. On April 28, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Richard Cordray sent a letter to eight financial industry trade groups stating that the agency intends to propose new amendments in late July 2016 to the rules synthesizing mortgage lending disclosures under the Truth in Lending Act (TILA) and Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA). Issued pursuant to the Dodd-Frank Act, the rules are known as the TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosures (TRID) rule, also referred to by the CFPB as the Know Before You Owe rules.
First issued as a final rule in November 2013, TRID has continued to bedevil industry participants. In response to complaints from the industry as to their inability to achieve compliance by the original compliance date, the CFPB delayed the compliance date to October 3, 2015. On October 6, 2015, secondary-market purchasers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac also announced that, given the difficulties that mortgage loan originators were having with TRID, they would refrain from conducting routine post-purchase loan file reviews for technical compliance with TRID for the foreseeable future. Since then, industry participants have continued to wrestle with the rule.
In an effort to help industry participants understand and comply with TRID, the CFPB has provided numerous resources. This includes devoting a page on the CFPB website to regulatory implementation issues, which collects resources such as educational videos and numerous compliance guides, such as a guide to completing the Loan Estimate and Closing Disclosure forms and a plain-language guide to the rules in an FAQ format.
In the April 28 letter, Director Cordray emphasized the CFPB’s empathy for the industry’s struggles with TRID implementation and that the agency is “continuously reassessing how best to provide further guidance.” He noted that the CFPB maintains an agency-wide team that meets weekly to discuss TRID issues, including industry feedback.
The letter did not indicate the specific content the CFPB’s proposed rule will contain, except that it is intended to provide for “greater certainty and clarity:”
We do recognize that incorporating some of the Bureau’s existing informal guidance where provided through webinar, compliance guide, or otherwise, into the regulation text and commentary would be helpful. We also believe that there are places in the regulation text and commentary where adjustments would be useful for greater certainty and clarity. Accordingly, we have begun drafting a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on the Know Before You Owe Rule.
Director Cordray stated that the CFPB hopes to issue the NPRM in late July 2016.
The letter was not immediately posted on the CFPB website but quickly began to circulate among industry participants. Financial institutions, mortgage lenders, investors in the secondary mortgage market, and other entities in the mortgage lending space should consider submitting comments during the public comment period. All comments will be read and considered by the CFPB.