Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection December 29, 2014 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is proposing to renew the approval for an existing information collection titled, ``Generic Information Collection Plan for Consumer Complaint and Information Collection System (Testing and Feedback).''

The Bureau is amending the official commentary that interprets the requirements of the Bureau's Regulation Z (Truth in Lending) to reflect a change in the asset size threshold for certain creditors to qualify for an exemption to the requirement to establish an escrow account for a higher-priced mortgage loan based on the annual percentage change in the average of the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) for the 12-month period ending in November. The exemption threshold is adjusted to increase to $2.060 billion from $2.028 billion. The adjustment is based on the 1.1 percent increase in the average of the CPI-W for the 12-month period ending in November 2014. Therefore, creditors with assets of $2.060 billion or less as of December 31, 2014, are exempt, if other requirements of Regulation Z also are met, from establishing escrow accounts for higher-priced mortgage loans in 2015. The adjustment to the escrows exemption asset-size threshold will also increase a similar threshold for small-creditor portfolio and balloon-payment qualified mortgages. Balloon-payment qualified mortgages that satisfy all applicable criteria, including being made by creditors that do not exceed the asset-size threshold, are also excepted from the prohibition on balloon payments for high-cost mortgages.