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On July 2, 2020, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to amend Regulation Z, which implements the Truth in Lending Act, as mandated by section 108 of the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act (EGRRCPA). The amendments would exempt certain insured depository institutions and insured credit unions from the requirement to establish escrow accounts for certain higher-priced mortgage loans. In the 2018 EGRRCPA, Congress required the

On June 30, 2020, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) published its Spring 2020 Agenda. The agenda lists the regulatory matters that the CFPB expects to focus on between May 1, 2020 and April 30, 2021. Those matters include: A final rule amending the CFPB’s Remittance Rule to provide tailored exceptions that permit certain insured institutions to disclose estimates instead of exact amounts to consumers in certain circumstances. The final rule also increases (from 100 remittance

On June 26, 2020 the Federal Reserve Board, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the National Credit Union Administration (collectively the Agencies) released proposed new and revised Interagency Questions and Answers Regarding Flood Insurance (FAQs). The FAQs have not been updated since 2011, which is gross incompetence on the part of the Agencies. Since the last revisions Congress has passed the Biggert-Waters Act and the Affordability Act,

On June 22 the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued two separate proposals to revise the Ability to Repay/Qualified Mortgages rules contained in Section.1026.43 of Regulation Z The first proposal is 233 pages in length. For General QM loans, the ratio of the consumer’s total monthly debt to total monthly income (DTI ratio) must not exceed 43 percent. The CFPB proposes certain amendments to the General QM loan definition in Regulation Z. Among other things,

On June 15, 2020 the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS), in Bostock v Clayton County, Georgia (Bostock) ruled that firing an employee for being homosexual or transgender constitutes discrimination based on the employee’s sex in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. Bostock is an employment case in which SCOTUS determined that disparate treatment of  homosexual or transgender individuals is sex discrimination. Both the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) and the Fair Housing Act