Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray told members of Congress yesterday that when enforcing the TILA-RESPA integrated mortgage disclosures starting on Aug. 1, the bureau would be “sensitive” to good-faith efforts by lenders to comply.
“I have spoken with our fellow regulators to clarify that our oversight of the implementation of the Rule will be sensitive to the progress made by those entities that have been squarely focused on making good-faith efforts to come into compliance with the Rule on time,” Cordray wrote.
ABA President and CEO Frank Keating expressed his disappointment with the bureau’s statement, which “falls well short of a ‘hold harmless’ period, which ABA and nearly 300 members of Congress asked for,” he said. “While the bureau acknowledged the implementation challenges of this rule, its decision will only provide limited assurances to bankers in their efforts to comply.”
ABA has engaged in a months-long advocacy effort to persuade the CFPB to provide a hold-harmless period, including grassroots advocacy that generated legislation on Capitol Hill and letters signed by hundreds of members of Congress. ABA also shared a detailed TRID readiness survey with the bureau, and ABA member Cindy Lowman, president of United Bank Mortgage Corp., Grand Rapids, Mich., called for a hold-harmless period when she was the only banking industry witness at a House hearing on TRID last month.
“ABA believes it is critical to establish a formal transition period for banks,” Keating added, noting that it would smooth the transition to TRID as the busy fall homebuying season kicks off and give lenders time to work out any kinks in new software and systems without delaying closings. For more information, contact ABA’s Rod Alba.