[Federal Register Volume 91, Number 52 (Wednesday, March 18, 2026)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 13203-13206]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2026-05384]
Presidential Documents
Federal Register / Vol. 91, No. 52 / Wednesday, March 18, 2026 /
Presidential Documents
[[Page 13203]]
Executive Order 14393 of March 13, 2026
Promoting Access to Mortgage Credit
By the authority vested in me as President by the
Constitution and the laws of the United States of
America, it is hereby ordered:
Section 1. Purpose. Every American seeking to buy a
home should have access to a mortgage from a reliable
lender, at a rate commensurate with his or her
creditworthiness. Over the past two decades, however,
statutory and regulatory changes--including rules
adopted under the Dodd-Frank Act, Public Law 111-203,
and subsequent rulemakings--have increased the
compliance costs of mortgage origination and servicing
and distorted the structure of the mortgage market.
These burdens have contributed to a significant decline
in bank participation in mortgage lending. Community
banks, generally institutions with fewer than $30
billion in assets, have been especially affected. The
regulatory and rule changes have undermined community
banks' businesses, concentrated credit and liquidity
risk outside the banking system, and resulted in
reduced access to credit for some creditworthy
borrowers, including rural households and low- and
moderate-income households. My Administration will
reduce these regulatory burdens to ensure that these
creditworthy borrowers can access the capital required
to purchase a home.
It is the policy of the United States to improve the
availability and affordability of mortgage credit;
tailor rules for community banks and ``smaller banks''
(banks with assets fewer than $100 billion); reduce the
regulatory burden on community banks and otherwise
facilitate community bank engagement in mortgage
activity; foster innovation, growth, and consumer
choice in the mortgage market; modernize origination
and closing standards to reduce lending costs; remove
regulatory distortions to the structure of the mortgage
market and to ensure capital and liquidity frameworks
subject similar credit and liquidity risks to similar
regulation across the system; promote competition among
mortgage lenders of all charter types to drive down
mortgage rates; and strengthen housing-finance
liquidity.
Sec. 2. Origination and Ability-to-Repay (ATR)/
Qualified Mortgage (QM) Reform. (a) The Consumer
Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) shall consider, as
appropriate and consistent with applicable law:
(i) proposing amendments to Regulation Z that tailor the following
requirements for smaller banks: ATR and QM requirements (including
potentially a broader QM safe harbor for portfolio loans) and the
requirements of the Truth in Lending Act, Public Law 90-321 (TILA), Real
Estate Settlement Procedure Act, Public Law 93-533 (RESPA), and TILA-RESPA
Integrated Disclosure (TRID) rules;
(ii) replacing TRID timing rules with a materiality-based standard that
preserves consumer clarity and reduces closing delays;
(iii) exempting small-mortgage loans from caps on QM points and fees or, as
appropriate, modifying such caps to support affordability;
(iv) updating regulations regarding banks' reasonable compliance with ATR
and QM underwriting requirements by removing unnecessarily burdensome
elements;
(v) modernizing the right to rescission for mortgage lending, for example,
by enabling increased secure electronic and digital forms and processes;
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(vi) streamlining the requirements applicable to rate-and-term refinancing
under Regulation X mortgage servicing rules; and
(vii) exempting rate-and-term refinancing (including cash-out refinancing)
from rescission rights.
(b) The Vice Chairman for Supervision of the Board
of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Federal
Reserve), the Director of the CFPB, the Chairman of the
National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) Board, the
Chairperson of the Board of Directors of the Federal
Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and the
Comptroller of the Currency shall consider, as
appropriate and consistent with applicable law,
revising supervisory guidance to ensure that:
(i) examiners evaluate mortgage lending based on the effectiveness of the
lender's policies regarding a consumer's ability to repay and prudent
underwriting, rather than the existing focus on process and technical
compliance; and
(ii) good-faith, technical compliance errors are subject to correction-
first supervisory treatment, with enforcement reserved for borrower harm or
repeated misconduct.
Sec. 3. Modernization of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act
(HMDA) Data Collection and Disclosure. (a) The CFPB
shall consider, as appropriate and consistent with
applicable law, proposing amendments to Regulation C to
raise the asset threshold for exemption from HMDA data
collection and reporting requirements for smaller
banks, to exclude inquiries from the scope of HMDA, and
to ensure that disclosures protect privacy and reduce
burdens, including insufficiently tailored, expensive,
and complex software and training needed for reporting
financial institutions.
Sec. 4. Capital and Liquidity Alignment. (a) The Vice
Chairman for Supervision of the Federal Reserve, the
Chairman of the NCUA Board, the Chairperson of the
Board of Directors of the FDIC, the Comptroller of the
Currency, and the Director of the Federal Housing
Finance Agency (FHFA) shall consider, as appropriate
and consistent with applicable law:
(i) revising capital regulations, consistent with appropriate risk-
management requirements, to tailor risk weights for all banks, including
community banks and other smaller banks, for portfolio mortgages, servicing
rights, and warehouse lines of credit to the material credit risk of the
exposure;
(ii) modernizing collateral valuation and transfer systems between the
Federal Reserve and Federal Home Loan Banks (FHLBs);
(iii) expanding access to longer-dated FHLB advances tied to residential
mortgage assets;
(iv) creating targeted FHLB liquidity programs for entry-level housing,
owner-occupied purchase loans, and small residential builders;
(v) accelerating collateral boarding and valuation processes through
standardized data and digital documentation; and
(vi) refocusing the FHLBs' Affordable Housing Program on faster-cycle
execution and greater financial leverage for small-scale and owner-occupied
housing projects.
(b) The Director of the FHFA and the Vice Chairman
for Supervision of the Federal Reserve shall consider,
as appropriate and consistent with applicable law,
authorizing FHLBs' intermediate access to the Federal
Reserve's discount window for FHLBs' member depository
institutions under standardized collateral,
operational, and risk-management protocols.
(c) Within 120 days of the date of this order, the
Director of the FHFA, in consultation with the heads of
other relevant executive departments and agencies,
shall submit a report to the Assistant to the President
for Economic Policy and the Director of the Office of
Management and Budget on the efficiency of national
housing finance markets. The report shall identify
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recommendations for regulatory or legislative changes
necessary to address any regulatory or oversight gaps.
Sec. 5. Construction and Housing Supply. (a) The Vice
Chairman for Supervision of the Federal Reserve, the
Director of the CFPB, the Chairman of the NCUA Board,
the Chairperson of the Board of Directors of the FDIC,
and the Comptroller of the Currency, shall consider, as
appropriate and consistent with applicable law,
revising supervisory guidance both to exclude one-to
four-family residential development and construction
lending from commercial real estate concentration
guidance and to ensure supervisory expectations support
responsible construction lending by community banks.
Sec. 6. Appraisal Modernization. (a) The Vice Chairman
for Supervision of the Federal Reserve, the Director of
the CFPB, the Chairman of the NCUA Board, the
Chairperson of Board of Directors of the FDIC, the
Comptroller of the Currency, and the Director of the
FHFA shall consider, as appropriate and consistent with
applicable law and their statutory authorities:
(i) modernizing appraisal regulations and guidance to expand the use of
alternative valuation models, desktop and hybrid appraisals, and artificial
intelligence valuation tools;
(ii) simplifying appraiser qualification requirements; and
(iii) reducing appraisal requirements for low-risk transactions, including
low loan-to-value refinancing and small-balance loans; and setting clear
appraisal timelines.
(b) The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
(HUD) and the Secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA) shall
consider, as appropriate and consistent with applicable
law:
(i) aligning appraisal standards between the Federal Housing Administration
and VA Home Loan Program where risk is comparable;
(ii) clarifying the distinction in an appraisal inspection between safety
and habitability concerns that necessitate pre-closing repairs versus
cosmetic concerns; and
(iii) expanding post-closing repair flexibility.
Sec. 7. Digital Mortgage Modernization. (a) The
Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of HUD, the
Secretary of VA, and the Director of the FHFA shall
consider, as appropriate and consistent with applicable
law:
(i) eliminating unnecessary wet-signature requirements for disclosures,
applications, closing documents, and similar documents;
(ii) standardizing acceptance of electronic signatures, e-notes, and remote
online notarization; and
(iii) promoting digital mortgage standards.
Sec. 8. Servicing and Supervisory Certainty. (a) The
Secretary of HUD, the Vice Chairman for Supervision of
the Federal Reserve, the Director of the CFPB, the
Chairman of the NCUA Board, the Chairperson of the
Board of Directors of the FDIC, and the Comptroller of
the Currency shall consider, as appropriate and
consistent with applicable law:
(i) aligning supervisory expectations to support portfolio mortgage
servicing as a core community banking function; extending cure-first
standards to good-faith servicing errors; simplifying loss mitigation
requirements; and issuing a proposed rule providing exemptions from complex
mortgage services for smaller banks; and
(ii) ensuring that supervisory evaluations of performing, prudently
underwritten portfolio loans do not focus on technical defects or rely on
evolving supervisory interpretations.
Sec. 9. Enforcement. (a) The Vice Chairman for
Supervision of the Federal Reserve, the Director of the
CFPB, the Chairman of the NCUA Board, the Chairperson
of the Board of Directors of the FDIC, and the
Comptroller of the Currency shall consider, as
appropriate and consistent with applicable law,
promulgating a policy against enforcement actions for
violations of consumer financial laws that:
[[Page 13206]]
(i) discourages imposing civil monetary penalties, except where the
underlying violations are willful, knowing, or reckless;
(ii) considers good corporate conduct, including a bank's correction of
good-faith, technical compliance errors; and
(iii) allows institutions a reasonable opportunity for self-identification
and remediation of appropriate compliance matters.
Sec. 10. Duplicative or Unnecessary Licensing
Requirements. The Vice Chairman for Supervision of the
Federal Reserve, the Director of the CFPB, the Chairman
of the NCUA Board, the Chairperson of the Board of
Directors of the FDIC, and the Comptroller of the
Currency shall consider, as appropriate and consistent
with applicable law, eliminating duplicative or
unnecessary requirements regarding licensing or
registration for mortgage loan officers of any smaller
bank.
Sec. 11. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order
shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:
(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or
the head thereof; or
(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget
relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with
applicable law and subject to the availability of
appropriations.
(c) This order is not intended to, and does not,
create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural,
enforceable at law or in equity by any party against
the United States, its departments, agencies, or
entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any
other person.
(d) The costs for publication of this order shall
be borne by the Department of the Treasury.
(Presidential Sig.)
THE WHITE HOUSE,
March 13, 2026.
[FR Doc. 2026-05384
Filed 3-17-26; 11:15 am]
Billing code 4810-25-P