Today the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) published the first part of a series of articles leading up to the publication of the combined Truth in Lending/RESPA disclosures. The first article looks at the origins of the Know Before You Owe project for simplifying mortgage disclosures. Tomorrow, the CFPB looks back at how the project unfolded. And then very soon, the CFPB will explain the long-awaited new proposed rule to make mortgage disclosures more effective and easier to use.
Once the rule is submitted for publication, the CFPB has promised a bunch of helpful information on their website. including:
- A side-by-side comparison of the existing forms and the new ones;
- Reports on what the CFPB learned from testing the forms and from discussions with small businesses;
- A timeline of the project leading up to this point; and
- A new way of presenting the rules and commentary that tell industry how to fill out the forms.
This reminds me of when I was a kid waiting for Santa, except these are not gifts that the CFPB is delivering.