CFPB Requests Public Comment on Mortgage Rule Assessment Plan

05/31/17 – The CFPB has released a plan to assess the effectiveness of the Ability-to-Repay/Qualified Mortgage rule (ATR/QM rule) and is seeking public comment.

The 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act), passed by Congress, established new standards for mortgage lending that required lenders to assess consumers’ ability to repay (ATR). The Dodd-Frank Act also provided for a class of “qualified mortgage” (QM) loans that cannot have certain risky product features and are presumed to comply with the ATR requirement.

Congress authorized the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to issue rules that would make the new ATR and QM standards clear and effective. The Bureau issued a rule to implement those standards in January 2013 (“January 2013 Rule”) and amended it a few times before it took effect on January 10, 2014, referring to all the requirements and related amendments that took effect as the “ATR/QM rule.”

The Bureau is conducting an assessment of its ATR/QM rule, and 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 ATR/QM rule, using available evidence and data.

The CFPB invites consumers, consumer advocates, mortgage loan creditors, industry representatives, and other interested parties to comment on the assessment plan, suggest sources of data, offer other recommendations, and generally provide information that would help the Bureau advance its knowledge of the benefits and costs of the key requirements of the ATR/QM rule.

Comments on the plan will be due 60 days after it is published in the Federal Register.

CFPB Blog, Notice.