Complete Story
07/17/2014
ICBA, Coalition: Expand Mortgage Regulation Exceptions for Small Creditors
| ICBA and a coalition of 45 state and regional banking associations urged the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to expand exceptions for small creditors under new mortgage rules to ensure community banks can continue to meet their communities’ mortgage needs. In a joint letter, the organizations called on the CFPB to allow community bank loans held in portfolio for the life of the loan to automatically receive qualified mortgage safe harbor status and an exemption from escrow requirements for higher-priced mortgage loans. To qualify for the small-creditor exception under the CFPB’s current ability-to-repay regulations, creditors and their affiliates must have originated 500 or fewer covered transactions secured by a first lien in the preceding calendar year and had total assets of less than $2 billion at the end of the preceding calendar year. The organizations called for an expanded small-creditor exemption from these new regulations to ensure the rules fit the community banking model and to avoid curtailing access to credit in communities across the nation. |
