[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 121 (Monday, June 24, 2019)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 29729-29733]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-11746]
[[Page 29729]]
Vol. 84
Monday,
No. 121
June 24, 2019
Part XXII
Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection
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Unified Agenda
Federal Register / Vol. 84 , No. 121 / Monday, June 24, 2019 /
Unified Agenda
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BUREAU OF CONSUMER FINANCIAL PROTECTION
12 CFR Ch. X
Semiannual Regulatory Agenda
AGENCY: Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection.
ACTION: Semiannual regulatory agenda.
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SUMMARY: The Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (Bureau) is
publishing this agenda as part of the Spring 2019 Unified Agenda of
Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions. The Bureau reasonably
anticipates having the regulatory matters identified below under
consideration during the period from May 1, 2019 to April 30, 2020. The
next agenda will be published in fall 2019 and will update this agenda
through fall 2020. Publication of this agenda is in accordance with the
Regulatory Flexibility Act (5 U.S.C. 601 et seq.).
DATES: This information is current as of March 6, 2019.
ADDRESSES: Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, 1700 G Street NW,
Washington, DC 20552.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: A staff contact is included for each
regulatory item listed herein. If you require this document in an
alternative electronic format, please contact
[email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Bureau is publishing its Spring 2019
Agenda as part of the Spring 2019 Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory
and Deregulatory Actions, which is coordinated by the Office of
Management and Budget under Executive Order 12866. The agenda lists the
regulatory matters that the Bureau reasonably anticipates having under
consideration during the period from May 1, 2019 to April 30, 2020, as
described further below.\1\ The Bureau's participation in the Unified
Agenda is voluntary. The complete Unified Agenda is available to the
public at the following website: http://www.reginfo.gov.
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\1\ The listing does not include certain routine, frequent, or
administrative matters. Further, the fields ``Unfunded Mandates,''
``E.O. 13771 Designation,'' and ``Federalism Implications'' are not
required for independent regulatory agencies, including the Bureau,
and, accordingly, the Bureau has indicated responses of ``no'' or
``Independent Agency'' for such fields.
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Pursuant to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer
Protection Act, Public Law 111-203, 124 Stat. 1376 (Dodd-Frank Act),
the Bureau has rulemaking, supervisory, enforcement, and other
authorities relating to consumer financial products and services. These
authorities include the authority to issue regulations under more than
a dozen Federal consumer financial laws, which transferred to the
Bureau from seven Federal agencies on July 21, 2011. The Bureau's
general purpose, as specified in section 1021 of the Dodd-Frank Act, is
to implement and enforce Federal consumer financial law consistently
for the purpose of ensuring that all consumers have access to markets
for consumer financial products and services and that markets for
consumer financial products and services are fair, transparent, and
competitive.
The Bureau is working on various initiatives to address issues in
markets for consumer financial products and services that are not
reflected in this notice because the Unified Agenda is limited to
rulemaking activities. Section 1021 of the Dodd-Frank Act specifies the
objectives of the Bureau, including ensuring that, with respect to
consumer financial products and services, consumers are provided with
timely and understandable information to make responsible decisions
about financial transactions; consumers are protected from unfair,
deceptive, or abusive acts and practices and from discrimination;
outdated, unnecessary, or unduly burdensome regulations are regularly
identified and addressed in order to reduce unwarranted regulatory
burdens; that Federal consumer financial law is enforced consistently,
without regard to the status of a person as a depository institution,
in order to promote fair competition; and markets for consumer
financial products and services operate transparently and efficiently
to facilitate access and innovation.
A new permanent director of the Bureau took office in December
2018. The Director has embarked on a listening tour to engage with
Bureau stakeholders, employees, and outside experts, building on
feedback submitted through more than 88,000 public comments in response
to the Bureau's 2018 ``Call for Evidence'' initiative. The Bureau
expects to communicate further information about future planning and
priorities after the conclusion of the listening tour. In the meantime,
this Spring 2019 Agenda reflects ongoing rulemaking activities,
including initiatives to implement statutory requirements and to
address the potential sunset of statutory and regulatory provisions.
Implementing Statutory Directives
The Bureau is engaged in a number of rulemakings to implement
directives mandated in the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and
Consumer Protection Act of 2018 (EGRRCPA), Public Law 115-174, 132
Stat. 1297, the Dodd-Frank Act, and other statutes. As part of these
rulemakings, the Bureau is working to achieve the consumer protection
objectives of the statutes while minimizing regulatory burden on
financial services providers, including facilitating industry
compliance with rules.
For example, the Bureau has recently published an Advance Notice of
Proposed Rulemaking to seek public comment relating to implementation
of section 307 of EGRRCPA, which amends the Truth in Lending Act (TILA)
to mandate that the Bureau prescribe certain regulations relating to
``Property Assessed Clean Energy'' (PACE) financing. As defined by
EGRRCPA section 307, PACE financing results in a tax assessment on a
consumer's real property and covers the costs of home improvements. The
required regulations must carry out the purposes of TILA's ability-to-
repay (ATR) requirements, currently in place for residential mortgage
loans, with respect to PACE financing, and apply TILA's general civil
liability provision for violations of the ATR requirements the Bureau
will prescribe for PACE financing. The regulations must ``account for
the unique nature'' of PACE financing.
Later in the spring, the Bureau is preparing to issue a Notice of
Proposed Rulemaking to follow up on an interpretive and procedural rule
that it issued in August 2018 to provide clarification regarding
EGRRCPA amendments to the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA), which
requires financial institutions to report certain mortgage information
to Federal financial regulators and the public. The scope of HMDA
reporting was expanded by the Dodd-Frank Act and by the Bureau via rule
in 2015. The EGRRCPA creates partial exemptions that allow certain
insured depository institutions and insured credit unions not to report
certain data points for certain transactions. Among other things, the
August 2018 interpretive and procedural rule provided clarification as
to which loans and lines of credit count toward the EGRRCPA partial
exemption thresholds and which data points are covered by the partial
exemptions. The new proposal will seek to incorporate the August
interpretations and procedures into Regulation C and to implement
further the EGRRCPA amendments to HMDA, as well as to advance the
Bureau's reconsideration of the 2015 HMDA rule as discussed further
below.
[[Page 29731]]
The Bureau has been engaged in a range of other activities to
support implementation of EGRRCPA. For example, the Bureau updated its
small entity compliance guides and other compliance aids to reflect
EGRRCPA's statutory changes. The Bureau also has issued written
guidance as encouraged by section 109 of the Act to facilitate
compliance with certain regulations governing mortgage disclosures.\2\
In addition, the Bureau anticipates engaging in rulemaking to align
superseded regulations with EGRRCPA provisions that do not require
rulemaking to take effect and as needed to facilitate compliance.
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\2\ See, e.g., ``TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure FAQs'',
available at https://www.consumerfinance.gov/policy-compliance/guidance/tila-respa-disclosure-rule/tila-respa-integrated-disclosure-faqs/.
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Consistent with undertaking rulemaking to implement the EGRRCPA,
the Bureau intends to recommence work later this year to develop rules
to implement section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act. Section 1071 amended
the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) to require financial
institutions to collect, report, and make public certain information
concerning credit applications made by women-owned, minority-owned, and
small businesses. The Bureau delayed rulemaking to implement this
provision pending implementation of the Dodd-Frank Act amendments to
HMDA and started work on the project after the HMDA rules were issued
in 2015. The Bureau decided to pause work on section 1071 in 2018 in
light of resource constraints and the priority accorded to various HMDA
initiatives. The Bureau expects that it will be able to resume pre-
rulemaking activities on the section 1071 project within this next
year.
Continuation of Other Rulemakings
The Bureau is continuing certain other rulemakings described in its
Fall 2018 Agenda to ensure that markets for consumer financial products
and services operate transparently and efficiently and to address
potential unwarranted regulatory burdens.
For example, the Bureau issued two proposals in February 2019
relating to reconsideration of a 2017 rule titled Payday, Vehicle
Title, and Certain High-Cost Installment Loans. The main proposal would
rescind portions of the 2017 rule that mandated underwriting
requirements for certain short-term and balloon-payment loans. The
second proposal would postpone the compliance date for those same
provisions for fifteen months to allow the Bureau adequate opportunity
to review comments on its main rulemaking and to make any changes to
those provisions before affected entities bear additional costs and
experience related market effects associated with implementing and
complying with those provisions. The proposed postponement would also
account for potential implementation challenges that had not been
anticipated at the time of the 2017 rule. The Bureau expects to issue a
final rule concerning the compliance date in summer 2019 and a final
determination on reconsideration thereafter.
In addition, prior to the enactment of the EGRRCPA, the Bureau in
August 2017, had temporarily increased the threshold for collecting and
reporting HMDA data with respect to open-end lines of credit from 100
loans to 500 loans so that the Bureau could assess whether to make a
permanent adjustment to the 100 open-end line of credit threshold. In
December 2017, the Bureau announced that it intended to open a
rulemaking to reconsider its 2015 HMDA rule more generally. The Bureau
plans to issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in spring 2019 to
address both the open-end threshold and the 2015 HMDA rule's 25-loan
threshold for closed-end loans, as well as implementation of the
EGRRCPA's changes to HMDA as described above. The Bureau also plans to
issue in 2019 an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking concerning
certain data points that are reported under the 2015 HMDA rule. The
Bureau expects at a later date to issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking
concerning the public disclosure of HMDA data in light of consumer
privacy interests.\3\
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\3\ The 2010 Dodd-Frank Act amendments to HMDA direct the Bureau
to develop regulations that modify or require modification of the
public HMDA data for the purpose of protecting consumer privacy
interests. The Bureau's 2015 HMDA rule adopted a balancing test to
determine whether and how HMDA data should be modified prior to its
disclosure to the public in order to protect applicant and borrower
privacy while also fulfilling HMDA's public disclosure purpose. The
Bureau in 2018 issued final policy guidance applying the test to
current data fields and announced its intention to conduct a notice-
and-comment rulemaking to seek further input on the public release
going forward. Commencing a notice-and-comment rulemaking will also
enable the Bureau to adopt a more definitive approach to disclosing
HMDA data to the public in future years after considering new
information concerning the privacy risks and benefits of disclosure
of the HMDA data. Given that the Bureau plans to issue an Advance
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on data points, the Bureau recognizes
any potential modification of the data points may require the Bureau
to update its application of the balancing test to the affected
data. Thus, the Bureau has decided to engage in rulemaking activity
so that data field coverage and privacy issues can be considered and
resolved in coordination.
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Finally, the Bureau expects to issue a Notice of Proposed
Rulemaking by spring 2019 addressing such issues as communication
practices and consumer disclosures in the debt collection market. This
proposal builds on research and pre-rulemaking activities regarding the
debt collection market, which remains a top source of complaints to the
Bureau. The Bureau has also received encouragement from industry and
consumer groups to engage in rulemaking to address how to apply the 40-
year old Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) to modern
collection practices. The Bureau released an outline of proposals under
consideration in July 2016 concerning practices by companies that are
debt collectors under the FDCPA. This outline was released in advance
of convening a panel in August 2016, under the Small Business
Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act in conjunction with the Office of
Management and Budget and the Small Business Administration's Chief
Counsel for Advocacy to consult with representatives of small
businesses that might be affected by the rulemaking.
New Projects and Further Planning
After completing an assessment in October 2018, of its rules to
implement Dodd-Frank Act requirements for international remittance
transfers,\4\ the Bureau is now considering appropriate steps, which
may include rulemaking, to gather information related to the expiration
of a statutorily-established exception in the Remittance Rule that
permits insured banks and insured credit unions to estimate certain
required disclosures and other potential remittance transfer issues. In
its consideration of appropriate next steps, the Bureau is also taking
account of stakeholder feedback that it received both during and after
the assessment process, particularly with respect to the application of
the rule to smaller providers.
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\4\ ``Remittance rule assessment report'', available at https://www.consumerfinance.gov/data-research/research-reports/remittance-rule-assessment report/.
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The Bureau also recently completed an assessment of rules
implementing Dodd-Frank Act provisions that require mortgage lenders to
determine consumers' ability to repay loans and define certain
``qualified mortgages'' that are presumed to comply with the statutory
requirements.\5\ The Bureau is
[[Page 29732]]
now focusing its attention on a regulatory provision that extends
qualified mortgage status to loans that are eligible to be purchased or
guaranteed by either Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac (which are often called
the government sponsored entities or GSEs) while they operate under
Federal conservatorship or receivership. The ``GSE patch'' provision is
set to expire in January 2021, meaning that loans originated after that
date would not be eligible for qualified mortgage status under its
criteria. After further policy analysis on this issue, the Bureau will
determine whether rulemaking or follow up activity is appropriate
concerning the patch or other aspects of the ATR/QM rules.
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\5\ ``2013 Ability-to-Repay and Qualified Mortgage Assessment
Report'', available at https://www.consumerfinance.gov/data-research/research-reports/2013-ability-repay-and-qualified-mortgage-assessment-report/.
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As noted above, Bureau leadership is considering further
prioritization and planning of the Bureau's rulemaking activities, both
with regard to substantive projects and modifications to the processes
that the Bureau uses to develop and review regulations. The Bureau is
drawing on a wide range of sources in this process, including
evaluation of projects and process improvements that have been listed
or described in previous Bureau agendas, ideas gathered by an internal
task force on burden reduction, suggestions submitted during the 2018
Call for Evidence initiative, and feedback the Bureau has received
during its current listening tour. While this evaluation is underway,
the Bureau has decided not to revise its current list of long-term
projects other than the changes described above.
The Bureau is also actively reviewing existing regulations. For
example, the Bureau will be conducting an assessment pursuant to
section 1022(d) of the Dodd-Frank Act of its regulations to consolidate
various mortgage origination disclosures under the Truth in Lending Act
and Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. The Bureau also expects to
undertake reviews consistent with section 610 of the Regulatory
Flexibility Act, of certain regulations which are believed to have a
significant impact on a substantial number of small entities. The
Bureau expects to publish its plan for conducting such review in the
coming months.
Finally, as required by the Dodd-Frank Act, the Bureau is also
continuing to monitor markets for consumer financial products and
services to identify risks to consumers and the proper functioning of
such markets. As discussed in a recent report by the Government
Accountability Office, the Bureau's Division of Research, Markets, and
Regulations and specifically its Markets Offices continuously monitor
market developments and risks to consumers. The Bureau also has created
a number of cross-Bureau working groups focused around specific markets
which advance the Bureau's market monitoring work. Bureau leadership's
listening tour also is seeking stakeholder feedback on these issues.
The Bureau expects by no later than the Fall 2019 Agenda to issue a
more comprehensive statement of priorities to reflect this market
monitoring and the Bureau's other activities discussed above.
Diane Thompson,
Acting Assistant Director for Regulations, Bureau of Consumer Financial
Protection.
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau--Prerule Stage
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Regulation
Sequence No. Title Identifier No.
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256....................... Business Lending Data 3170-AA09
(Regulation B).
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Consumer Financial Protection Bureau--Proposed Rule Stage
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Regulation
Sequence No. Title Identifier No.
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257....................... Debt Collection Rule...... 3170-AA41
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CONSUMER FINANCIAL PROTECTION BUREAU (CFPB)
Prerule Stage
256. Business Lending Data (Regulation B)
E.O. 13771 Designation: Independent agency.
Legal Authority: 15 U.S.C. 1691c-2
Abstract: Section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and
Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act) amends the Equal Credit
Opportunity Act (ECOA) to require financial institutions to report
information concerning credit applications made by women-owned,
minority-owned, and small businesses. The amendments to ECOA made by
the Dodd-Frank Act require that certain data be collected, maintained,
and reported, including the number of the application and date the
application was received; the type and purpose of the loan or credit
applied for; the amount of credit applied for and approved; the type of
action taken with regard to each application and the date of such
action; the census tract of the principal place of business; the gross
annual revenue of the business; and the race, sex, and ethnicity of the
principal owners of the business. The Dodd-Frank Act also provides
authority for the Bureau to require any additional data that the Bureau
determines would aid in fulfilling the purposes of this section. The
Bureau issued a Request for Information in 2017 seeking public comment
on, among other things, the types of credit products offered and the
types of data currently collected by lenders in this market, and the
potential complexity, cost of, and privacy issues related to, small
business data collection. The information received will help the Bureau
determine how to implement the rule efficiently while minimizing
burdens on lenders. The Bureau had moved this rulemaking to long-term
action status in light of other responsibilities but is now in the
process of reactivating it.
Timetable:
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Action Date FR Cite
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Request for Information............. 05/15/17 82 FR 22318
Request for Information Comment 09/14/17 .......................
Period End.
Pre-rule Activity................... 01/00/20 .......................
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Regulatory Flexibility Analysis Required: Yes.
Agency Contact: Elena Grigera Babinecz, Office of Regulations,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Phone: 202 435-7700.
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RIN: 3170-AA09
CONSUMER FINANCIAL PROTECTION BUREAU (CFPB)
Proposed Rule Stage
257. Debt Collection Rule
E.O. 13771 Designation: Independent agency.
Legal Authority: 15 U.S.C. 1692l(d)
Abstract: The Bureau has been engaged in research and pre-
rulemaking activities regarding debt-collection practices. Debt
collection continues to be a top source of complaints to the Bureau.
The Bureau has also received encouragement from industry and consumer
groups to engage in rulemaking to address how to apply the 40-year old
Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) to modern collection
practices. The Bureau released an outline of proposals under
consideration in July 2016, concerning practices by companies that are
debt collectors under the FDCPA, in advance of convening a panel in
August 2016, under the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness
Act in conjunction with the Office of Management and Budget and the
Small Business Administration's Chief Counsel for Advocacy to consult
with representatives of small businesses that might be affected by the
rulemaking. The Bureau expects to issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking
addressing such issues as communication practices and consumer
disclosures by spring 2019.
Timetable:
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Action Date FR Cite
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ANPRM............................... 11/12/13 78 FR 67847
ANPRM Comment Period Extended....... 01/14/14 79 FR 2384
ANPRM Comment Period End............ 02/10/14
ANPRM Comment Period Extended End... 02/28/14
Pre-Rule Activity................... 07/28/16
NPRM................................ 05/00/19
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Regulatory Flexibility Analysis Required: Yes.
Agency Contact: Kristin McPartland, Office of Regulations, Consumer
Financial Protection Bureau, Phone: 202 435-7700.
RIN: 3170-AA41
[FR Doc. 2019-11746 Filed 6-21-19; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4810-AM-P