Federal agencies on Friday announced updates to their rulemaking agendas. Items on the agendas and their associated timelines were submitted to the White House’s Office of Management and Budget in late April. The Conumer Financial Protection Bureau’s agenda does not necessarily reflect the priorities of Rohit Chopra, whose nomination to serve as CFPB director is pending in the Senate.
The CFPB’s agenda stated that the agency is “prioritizing” issuance of a final rule, projected for July, to amend mortgage servicing early intervention and loss mitigation-related provisions in Regulation X “to provide relief for consumers facing hardship due to COVID-19 and the related economic crisis.” The bureau said it also intends to issue a proposed rule in September to implement Section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act (regarding small business lending data collection) and to finalize a rule in January 2022 to facilitate compliance by creditors with Regulation Z as they transition away from Libor. In addition, the bureau will this month to finalize an extension—until January 29, 2022—of the effective date of its debt collection rules on third-party debt and disclosures.
The Securities and Exchange Commission projected that it will issue a proposed rule in October to enhance registrant disclosures regarding issuers’ climate-related risks and opportunities. The Federal Reserve and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network said they will issue a final rule in September that would apply information collection requirements to domestic and cross-border transactions involving cryptocurrencies. FinCEN also anticipates issuing a final rule in November to impose Bank Secrecy Act recordkeeping and identity verification requirements to transactions involving convertible virtual currency or digital assets with legal tender status.
The Federal Reserve included its work on Community Reinvestment Act modernization in its list of long-term actions and did provide a date for additional action.
Meanwhile, the Department of Housing and Urban Development will propose to reinstate the 2013 discriminatory effects rule, according to its updated regulatory agenda. In October, a nationwide preliminary injunction was issued by a federal districtjudge in Massachusetts delayed the effective date of HUD’s disparate impact rule and stopped HUD from implementing or enforcing the rule. HUD said that in view of the preliminary injunction and on further consideration, it will propose to reinstate the 2013 rule.
