For an agency that is supposedly not doing much, the regulatory agenda for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau looks pretty full. The federal government released its long-awaited agenda of rulemaking and administrative actions, and the CFPB’s portion contains two dozen different rules in stages of development.
Nine of the items are in the pre-rule stage, including:
- Unfair, Deceptive, or Abusive Acts and Practices
- Loan Originator Compensation Requirements Under the Truth in Lending Act (Regulation Z); Rescission
- Discretionary Servicing Rules under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (Regulation X)
- Identity Theft and Coerced Debt (Regulation V)
- Discretionary Mortgage Servicing Rules Under the Truth in Lending Act (Regulation Z)
- Defining Larger Participants of the Automobile Financing Market
- Defining Larger Participants of the Consumer Debt Collection Market
- Defining Larger Participants of the Consumer Reporting Market 2025
- Defining Larger Participants of the International Money Transfer Market
The CFPB has 10 rules it is working on:
- Registry of Nonbank Covered Persons Subject to Certain Agency and Court Orders; Proposed Rescission
- Rules of Practice for Adjudication Proceedings; Rescission
- Procedures for Supervisory Designation Proceedings
- Payday, Vehicle, Title, and Certain High-Cost Installment Loans Reconsideration
- Personal Financial Data Rights Reconsideration
- Small Business Lending Data Collection Under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act Reconsideration
- Procedures for Guidance Documents
- Procedures for Periodic Review of Bureau Regulations
- Legal Standard Applicable to Supervisory Designation Proceedings
- Equal Credit Opportunity Act (Regulation B)
And there are five items in the final rule stage:
- Streamlining Mortgage Servicing for Borrowers Experiencing Payment Difficulties (Regulation X)
- Financial Data Transparency Act
- Remittance Transfers Under the Electronic Fund Transfer Act (Regulation E)
- Protections for Borrowers Affected by the COVID-19 Emergency Under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), Regulation X, Rescission
- Rescission of State Official Notification Rules
Related to the credit and collection industry, the proposed rules on UDAAP, identity theft and coerced debt, and defining larger market participants of the consumer debt collection market, and the final rule on rescinding state official notification rules are likely the most applicable.
The pre-rule stage involves evaluating “possible alternative solutions to a rulemaking and determines whether the benefits of the regulation justify the costs.” For the identity theft and coerced debt and larger market participants definition, this marks the first time they have been included in the rulemaking agenda.
