Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection 2016 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Pursuant to the authorities given to the Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (Bureau) under the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act) Director Richard Cordray invites the public to apply for membership for appointment to its Consumer Advisory Board (Board), Community Bank Advisory Council, and Credit Union Advisory Council (collectively, Advisory Councils). Membership of the Board and Councils includes representatives of consumers, communities, the financial services industry and academics. Appointments to the Board are typically for three years and appointments to the Councils are typically for two years. However, the Director may amend the respective Board and Council charters from time to time during the charter terms, as the Director deems necessary to accomplish the purpose of the Board and Councils. The Bureau expects to announce the selection of new members in August 2017.

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 $2.069 billion from $2.052 billion. The adjustment is based on the .8 percent increase in the average of the CPI-W for the 12-month period ending in November 2016. Therefore, creditors with assets of less than $2.069 billion (including assets of certain affiliates) as of December 31, 2016, are exempt, if other requirements of Regulation Z also are met, from establishing escrow accounts for higher-priced mortgage loans in 2017. This asset limit will also apply during a grace period, in certain circumstances, with respect to transactions with applications received before April 1 of 2018. 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 have (together with certain affiliates) total assets below the threshold, are also excepted from the prohibition on balloon payments for high-cost mortgages.

The Board and the Bureau are finalizing amendments to the official interpretations and commentary for the agencies' regulations that implement the Consumer Leasing Act (CLA). The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act) amended the CLA by requiring that the dollar threshold for exempt consumer leases be adjusted annually by the annual percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). If there is no annual percentage increase in the CPI-W, the Board and Bureau will not adjust this exemption threshold from the prior year. The final rule memorializes this as well as the agencies' calculation method for determining the adjustment in years following a year in which there is no annual percentage increase in the CPI-W. Based on the CPI-W in effect as of June 1, 2016, the exemption threshold will remain at $54,600 through 2017. The Dodd-Frank Act also requires similar adjustments in the Truth in Lending Act's threshold for exempt consumer credit transactions. Accordingly, the Board and the Bureau are adopting similar amendments to the commentaries to each of their respective regulations implementing the Truth in Lending Act elsewhere in this issue of the Federal Register.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (Bureau or CFPB) is proposing a new information collection titled, ``Consumer Response Customer Response Survey.''

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act) provides for consumer rights to access financial account and account-related data in usable electronic form. The Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (Bureau or CFPB) is seeking comments from the public about consumer access to such information, including access by entities acting with consumer permission, in connection with the provision of products or services that make use of that information. Submissions to this Request for Information will assist market participants and policymakers to develop practices and procedures that enable consumers to realize the benefits associated with safe access to their financial records, assess necessary consumer protections and safeguards, and spur innovation.

The Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (Bureau) announces that the ceiling on allowable charges under section 612(f) of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) will remain unchanged at $12.00, effective for 2017. The Bureau is required to increase the $8.00 amount referred to in section 612(f)(1)(A)(i) of the FCRA on January 1 of each year, based proportionally on changes in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), with fractional changes rounded to the nearest fifty cents. The CPI-U increased 49.77 percent between September 1997, when the FCRA amendments took effect, and September 2016. This increase in the CPI-U, and the requirement that any increase be rounded to the nearest fifty cents, result in a maximum allowable charge of $12.00.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (Bureau) is requesting to renew the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approval for an existing information collection titled, ``Truth In Lending Act (Regulation Z)Appraisals For Higher-Priced Mortgage Loans.''

The Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (Bureau) is issuing this interpretive rule under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) to clarify the interaction of the FDCPA and specified mortgage servicing rules in Regulations X and Z. This interpretive rule constitutes an advisory opinion for purposes of the FDCPA and provides safe harbors from liability for servicers acting in compliance with specified mortgage servicing rules in three situations: Servicers do not violate FDCPA section 805(b) when communicating about the mortgage loan with confirmed successors in interest in compliance with specified mortgage servicing rules in Regulation X or Z; servicers do not violate FDCPA section 805(c) with respect to the mortgage loan when providing the written early intervention notice required by Regulation X to a borrower who has invoked the cease communication right under FDCPA section 805(c); and servicers do not violate FDCPA section 805(c) when responding to borrower-initiated communications concerning loss mitigation after the borrower has invoked the cease communication right under FDCPA section 805(c).

This notice sets forth the announcement of a public meeting of the Consumer Advisory Board (CAB or Board) of the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (CFPB or Bureau). The notice also describes the functions of the Board. Notice of the meeting is permitted by section 9 of the CAB Charter and is intended to notify the public of this meeting.

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (Dodd-Frank) established the Office of Financial Education within the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (CFPB or Bureau) to develop and launch initiatives that will educate consumers and help them make better informed financial decisions. The CFPB's Office of Financial Education is exploring how to produce a list of companies offering existing customers free access to a credit score (``the service''). The Bureau could leverage this list to bring consumer attention to the topic, and to develop content to educate, inform and empower consumers on the use and availability of credit scores and credit reports. The responses to this notice will help us to launch this public list.

The Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (Bureau) is publishing a notice pursuant to the Equal Credit Opportunity Act concerning the new Uniform Residential Loan Application and the collection of expanded Home Mortgage Disclosure Act information about ethnicity and race in 2017.

This notice sets forth the announcement of a public meeting of the Community Bank Advisory Council (CBAC or Council) of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau). The notice also describes the functions of the Council. Notice of the meeting is permitted by section 9 of the CBAC Charter and is intended to notify the public of this meeting.

The Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (Bureau) proposes amendments to the procedures used by the public to obtain information from the Bureau under the Freedom of Information Act, the Privacy Act of 1974, and in legal proceedings. The Bureau also proposes amendments to its rule regarding the confidential treatment of information obtained from persons in connection with the exercise of its authorities under Federal consumer financial law.

This notice sets forth the announcement of a public meeting of the Credit Union Advisory Council (CUAC or Council) of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau). The notice also describes the functions of the Council. Notice of the meeting is permitted by section 9 of the CUAC Charter and is intended to notify the public of this meeting. Specifically, section 9(d) of the CUAC Charter states:

The Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (Bureau) announces the availability of a revised methodology statement, entitled the ``Methodology for Determining Average Prime Offer Rates.'' The methodology statement describes the data and the methodology used to calculate average prime offer rates for purposes of Regulation C and Regulation Z. The statement has been revised to reflect the fact that the Bureau is using a different source of survey data for the one-year variable rate mortgage product to calculate average prime offer rates.

The Board and the Bureau are proposing to amend the official interpretations and commentary for the agencies' regulations that implement the Consumer Leasing Act (CLA). The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act) amended the CLA by requiring that the dollar threshold for exempt consumer credit transactions be adjusted annually by the annual percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). If there is no annual percentage increase in the CPI-W, the Board and Bureau will not adjust this exemption threshold from the prior year. The proposal would memorialize this as well as the agencies' calculation method for determining the adjustment in years following a year in which there is no annual percentage increase in the CPI-W. Because the Dodd-Frank Act also requires similar adjustments in the Truth in Lending Act's threshold for exempt consumer credit transactions, the Board and the Bureau are proposing similar amendments to the commentaries to each of their respective regulations implementing the Truth in Lending Act elsewhere in the Federal Register.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (Bureau or CFPB) is requesting a new information collection titled, ``Consumer Response Company Response Survey.''

Congress established the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (Bureau or CFPB) in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (Dodd-Frank Act). As set forth in section 1021 of the Dodd-Frank Act, the Bureau's purpose is to implement and, where applicable, enforce Federal consumer financial law consistently for the purpose of ensuring that all consumers have access to markets for consumer financial products and services and that markets for consumer financial products and services are fair, transparent, and competitive. In discharging this obligation, the CFPB seeks feedback on practices and products that are related to but may not be addressed in the Bureau's concurrently published Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Payday, Vehicle Title, and Certain High-Cost Installment Loans (Concurrent Proposal). Specifically, in this Request for Information (RFI), the Bureau seeks comment on: Potential consumer protection concerns with loans that fall outside the scope of the Bureau's Concurrent Proposal but are designed to serve similar populations and needs as those loans covered by the proposal; and business practices concerning loans falling within the Bureau's Concurrent Proposal's coverage that raise potential consumer protection concerns that are not addressed by the Concurrent Proposal. The Bureau seeks comment from the public about these consumer lending practices to increase the Bureau's understanding of and support for potential future efforts, including but not limited to future rulemakings, supervision, enforcement, or consumer education initiatives. Where the Bureau requests evidence, data, or other information regarding a particularly concern about consumer protections, the Bureau does not seek information that directly identifies an individual consumer.

The Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (CFPB) is issuing its twelfth edition of its Supervisory Highlights. In this issue of Supervisory Highlights, we report examination findings in the areas of auto originations, debt collection, mortgage origination, small-dollar lending, and fair lending. As in past editions, this report includes information about a recent public enforcement action that was a result, at least in part, of our supervisory work. The report also includes information on our coordination with state and federal regulators on supervisory matters, as well as information on recently released guidance.

The OCC, Board, FDIC, CFPB, SEC, and NCUA (each, an Agency and collectively, the Agencies) announce that OMB has approved the collection of information contained in the Final Interagency Policy Statement Establishing Joint Standards for Assessing the Diversity Policies and Practices of Entities Regulated by the Agencies (Policy Statement). Regulated entities may now begin to submit self-assessments of their diversity policies and practices to the OMWI Director of their primary federal financial regulator.

The Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (Bureau) is issuing this final rule amending the regulatory text and official interpretations for Regulation Z, which implements the Truth in Lending Act (TILA). The Bureau is required to calculate annually the dollar amounts for several provisions in Regulation Z; this final rule revises, as applicable, the dollar amounts for provisions implementing amendments to TILA under the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 (CARD Act), the Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act of 1994 (HOEPA), and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act). In addition to adjusting these amounts, where appropriate, based on the annual percentage change reflected in the Consumer Price Index in effect on June 1, 2016, the Bureau is correcting a calculation error pertaining to the 2016 subsequent violation penalty safe harbor fee.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (Bureau) is requesting to renew the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approval for an existing information collection titled, ``Truth in Savings (Regulation DD) 12 CFR 1030.''

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (Bureau) is proposing to renew the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approval for a revised generic clearance titled, ``Generic Information Collection Plan for Qualitative Consumer Education and Engagement Information Collections.''