An upcoming deadline for a new set of mortgage disclosures has been extended. The delay was in response to industry comments “overwhelmingly” in support of extra time.
One of the many provisions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act is that disclosures required under the Truth-in-Lending Act and the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act be combined.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which itself was created through Dodd-Frank, issued a proposed rule in July to modify Regulation X, which covers RESPA, and Regulation Z, for TILA. A proposed combined disclosure, the Loan Estimate and Closing Disclosure, was the result of “months of qualitative testing and the bureau’s Know Before You Owe mortgage initiative.”
Dodd-Frank additionally establishes new mortgage disclosure requirements that automatically go into effect on Jan. 21, 2013. These include disclosures for the cancellation of escrow accounts, liability for deficiency balances and the acceptance of partial payments.
The deadline for implementing the new disclosures is being delayed by the CFPB, a notice Friday said. The delay is intended to allow “a more seamless integration with other mortgage disclosures.”
“The bureau’s July TILA-RESPA integration proposal requested comment on granting more time for companies to provide many of the additional disclosures so that the entire TILA-RESPA disclosure regime could take effect together,” the bulletin stated. “Commenters overwhelmingly supported providing this extra time so that all of the disclosures take effect together.”
As a result of a temporary exemption, mortgage lenders won’t be required to provide the additional disclosures until after the regulator’s previously proposed combined TILA-RESPA disclosure rules are finalized — reducing from two to one the number of times lenders will need to implement new mortgage disclosures.
CFPB Director Richard Cordray said that seeking public comment, conducting consumer testing and considering disclosures all at the same time will improve the quality of information received by consumers.
“Though no deadline was mandated for finalizing the TILA-RESPA integrated proposal, the bureau anticipates that the final rules will be published next year,” Friday’s notice stated.
