Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection October 20, 2022 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The OCC, the Board, and the Bureau are finalizing amendments to the official interpretations for their regulations that implement section 129H of the Truth in Lending Act (TILA). Section 129H of TILA establishes special appraisal requirements for ``higher-risk mortgages,'' termed ``higher-priced mortgage loans'' or ``HPMLs'' in the agencies' regulations. The OCC, the Board, the Bureau, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), and the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) (collectively, the Agencies) jointly issued final rules implementing these requirements, effective January 18, 2014. The Agencies' rules exempted, among other loan types, transactions of $25,000 or less, and required that this loan amount be adjusted annually based on any 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 OCC, the Board, and the Bureau will not adjust this exemption threshold from the prior year. Additionally, in years following a year in which the exemption threshold was not adjusted because the CPI-W decreased, the threshold is calculated by applying the annual percentage increase in the CPI-W to the dollar amount that would have resulted, after rounding, if the decreases and any subsequent increases in the CPI-W had been taken into account. Based on the CPI-W in effect as of June 1, 2022, the exemption threshold will increase from $28,500 to $31,000, effective January 1, 2023.

The Board and the Bureau (collectively, the Agencies) 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). Under regulations adopted by the Agencies, if there is no annual percentage increase in the CPI-W, the Agencies will not adjust this exemption threshold from the prior year. Additionally, in years following a year in which the exemption threshold was not adjusted because the CPI-W decreased, the threshold is calculated by applying the annual percentage change in the CPI-W to the dollar amount that would have resulted, after rounding, if the decreases and any subsequent increases in the CPI-W had been taken into account. Based on the annual percentage increase in the CPI-W as of June 1, 2022, the exemption threshold will increase from $61,000 to $66,400 effective January 1, 2023. Because the Dodd-Frank Act also requires similar adjustments in the Truth in Lending Act's threshold for exempt consumer credit transactions, the Agencies are making similar amendments to each of their respective regulations implementing the Truth in Lending Act elsewhere in the Rules section of this issue of the Federal Register.