On June 11, 2021 the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) published its Spring 2021 Regulatory Agenda. The CFPB’s listed of planned activities include:
Small business lending data – Section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act requires financial institutions to collect, report, and make public certain information concerning credit applications made by women-owned, minority-owned, and small businesses. The next action for section 1071 is to release a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, which the CFPB anticipates doing in September 2021.
Availability of electronic consumer financial account data –The CFPB is considering a rulemaking to implement section 1033 of the Dodd-Frank Act to address the availability of consumer financial account data in electronic form. The means by which these data are accessed, transmitted, stored, and used by financial institutions of all kinds can implicate significant privacy, security, racial equity, and other consumer financial protection concerns. In November 2020, the CFPB released an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) concerning consumer data access to implement section 1033, accepting comments until early February 2021. The Bureau is reviewing comments received in response to the ANPRM and considering those comments as potential next steps are considered.
Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing – Section 307 of the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act (EGRRCPA) requires that the CFPB prescribe certain regulations relating to PACE financing. PACE financing is a tool for consumers to finance certain improvements to residential real property and is authorized by State and local governments, typically for projects promoting energy and water conservation, among other public policy goals identified in state statute. In March 2019, the CFPB released an ANPRM and is continuing to engage with stakeholders and collect information for the rulemaking, including by collecting quantitative data on the effect of PACE on consumers’ financial outcomes.
Standards for Automated Valuation Models (AVMs) – The CFPB is pursuing an interagency rulemaking with the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board), the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the National Credit Union Administration, and the Federal Housing Finance Agency to develop regulations to implement the amendments made by the Dodd-Frank Act to the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act (FIRREA) concerning appraisals. The FIRREA amendments require implementing regulations for quality control standards for automated valuation models (AVMs). These standards are designed to ensure a high level of confidence in the estimates produced by the valuation models, protect against the manipulation of data, seek to avoid conflicts of interest, require random sample testing and reviews, and account for any other such factor that the Agencies determine to be appropriate.
Facilitating transition away from LIBOR index – The CFPB is continuing a rulemaking to address the anticipated expiration of the LIBOR index, which the UK Financial Conduct Authority has stated that it cannot guarantee the publication of beyond June 2023. This rulemaking is important for the millions of consumers who have adjustable-rate mortgages, credit cards, student loans, reverse mortgages, home equity lines of credit, or other loans that are tied to the LIBOR index. The Bureau’s work is designed to lessen the financial impact to consumers and facilitate creditor compliance by providing examples of replacement indices that meet Regulation Z requirements. The CFPB issued a proposed rule in June 2020 and expect to issue a final rule in January 2022.
Reviewing existing regulations – Section 1022(d) of the Dodd-Frank Act requires the CFPB to conduct an assessment of each significant rule or order we have adopted under Federal consumer financial law and publish a report of each assessment no later than five years after the effective date of the subject matter or order.
- The Bureau has decided that it will conduct an assessment of a rule implementing the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA), most of which became effective in January 2018. Further, in light of other rulemaking priorities, the CFPB is no longer pursuing two HMDA rulemakings that were listed in the proposed rule stage in previous agendas – one that concerns the data points that lenders must report and another related to the public disclosure of HMDA data.
- In August 2020, the CFPB began a RFA section 610 review of Regulation Z rules that implement the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009. Specifically, the Bureau reviewed an interim final rule and three final rules published by the Board from July 2009 to April 2011. This review was completed in April 2021, and the CFPB will publish its determination concerning any resulting changes to the rule in the Fall 2021 Unified Agenda.