Archive

Today the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) updated us on the extensive process used to develop the new combined TIL/RESPA forms. There is no question about it, the CFPB did exhaustive work designing the new combined forms. I expect the forms will be clearer and much easier to use. But there is one simple fact that Congress and the regulators refuse to grasp – borrowers do not read disclosures and they do not shop for […]

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 […]

Several months ago, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) published in its blog two sample closing disclosures that combine final Truth in Lending (TIL) disclosures with HUD-1 disclosures. They requested that consumers and industry members compare two prototypes for the disclosures and vote on the preferred option. Now the CFPB is asking consumers and industry members to look specifically at how the new closing disclosure prototypes work with the application disclosure prototype, which was pretty […]

Congress enacted the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act of 1974 (RESPA) based on findings that significant reforms in the real estate settlement process were needed to ensure that consumers are provided with greater and more timely information on the nature and costs of the residential real estate settlement process and are protected from unnecessarily high settlement charges caused by certain abusive practices that Congress found to have developed. In 1990, Congress amended RESPA by adding […]