The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is conducting an assessment of the mortgage servicing rules under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (Regulation X), as amended prior to January 10, 2014.
The CFPB is required to review certain rules within five years after they go into effect by the Dodd-Frank Wall Act.
In January 2013, the CFPB issued the 2013 RESPA Servicing Final Rule, which was amended several times before going into effect on January 10, 2014 as the RESPA mortgage servicing rule.
The bureau will issue a report of the assessment by January 2019. As required by law, the assessment will address the rule’s effectiveness in meeting the purposes and objectives of title X of the Dodd-Frank Act and the specific goals of the rule, using available evidence and data. The bureau also recently released its plan for the remittance rule assessment.
Conducting the assessment is an “opportunity [which] will advance our knowledge of the benefits and costs of the key requirements of the RESPA mortgage servicing rule,” the CFPB said. The assessment will also provide the public with information on the mortgage servicing market, and help the CFPB fulfill its “commitment to be an evidence-based and effective agency,” it said.
Comments on the plan – from consumers, consumer advocates, housing counselors, mortgage loan servicers, industry representatives, and other interested parties – will be due 60 days after it is published in the Federal Register. Comments sought include suggestions for sources of data, other recommendations, and generally information that would help the bureau understand the rule’s effectiveness or improve it.