New Requirements Finalized for Delinquent COVID-19 Homeowners

Hello Folks,

For those of you who do mortgage lending, your summer just got a little busier.  The CFPB has issued highly nuanced amendments to its existing regulations dealing with delinquent borrowers that have to be in place by August 31st.

For months the CFPB has expressed concern that as federal and state laws protecting individuals from foreclosure end, there will be a huge increase in foreclosures that will disproportionately impact minority communities. As originally proposed, the regulations put forward by the CFPB would have had the practical effect of preventing most foreclosures through the end of this year. These final regulations don’t go that far but they impose nuanced amendments for dealing with homeowners impacted by Covid-19 which your policies and procedures will have to reflect. Remember every box you don’t check off represents one more potential delay in a foreclosure.

I will be getting into the weeds in future blogs, but for now, among the most important things to keep in mind is that the regulations implement a streamline loan modification process under which mortgages that meet certain conditions can be evaluated for potential modifications by a servicer who has not received a completed application. Additionally, the regulations prescribe specific information which must be provided to delinquent borrowers. For instance, a servicer must inform a borrower that there are programs for individuals having difficulty making payments because of the Covid-19 emergency; list and describe the applicable programs and tell the borrower of at least one way they can find contact information for homeownership counseling services.

There is much more but for now, I want to make sure you start delving into this regulation if you haven’t done so already.

It’s Back!

New York Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney kicked off the holiday weekend by introducing the “Overdraft Protection Act of 2021.” If enacted, the bill would restrict overdraft fees by, among other things, requiring that such fees be “reasonable and proportional” to the cost of processing these transactions and limiting the number of overdraft fees that can be imposed on any one consumer. Expect an even bigger push to get the legislation done this year.