Today the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a 116 page final rule that amends Regulation Z escrow requirements. The rule is effective on June 1, 2013.
The final rule has three main elements:
- The rule amends existing regulations that require creditors to establish and maintain escrow accounts for at least one year after originating a “higher-priced mortgage loan” to require generally that the accounts be maintained for at least five years.
- The rule creates an exemption from the escrow requirement for small creditors that operate predominately in rural or underserved areas. Specifically, to be eligible for the exemption, a creditor must: (1) make more than half of its first-lien mortgages in rural or underserved areas; (2) have an asset size less than $2 billion; (3) together with its affiliates, have originated 500 or fewer first-lien mortgages during the preceding calendar year; and (4) together with its affiliates, not escrow for any mortgage it or its affiliates currently services, except in limited instances. Under the rule, eligible creditors need not establish escrow accounts for mortgages intended at consummation to be held in portfolio, but must establish accounts at consummation for mortgages that are subject to a forward commitment to be purchased by an investor that does not itself qualify for the exemption.
- Finally, the rule expands upon an existing exemption from escrowing for insurance premiums (though not for property taxes) for condominium units to extend the partial exemption to other situations in which an individual consumer’s property is covered by a master insurance policy.
The rule is available here.