Nearly four months after the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau finished the final mortgage servicing rule, it has finally been published in the Federal Register.
As Nanci Weissgold, a member of Alston & Bird’s Financial Services & Products Group, noted in HousingWire’s webinar on the rule, which can be found here, the rule generally is published in the Federal Register so that it goes into effect 12 months after publication.
However, this rule took unusually long to get published in the Federal Register, considering the CFPB finalized the new regulations on Aug. 4, giving the industry unexpected extra time to adapt to and learn the final rule.
As a result, the rule was published on Oct. 19 and will go into effect one year later on Oct. 19, 2017.
The only exception is for the successor in interest and bankruptcy periodic statements provisions, which take effect April 19, 2018.
The rule requires servicers to provide certain borrowers with foreclosure protections more than once over the life of the loan, clarifies borrower protections when the servicing of a loan is transferred and provides loan information to borrowers in bankruptcy.
Weissgold commented on the news saying, “While it is not clear why it took so long for the rules to be officially published, we now have the exact effective dates.”
“Given the operational complexities in implementing these rules, servicers should not delay in understanding the requirements and developing an implementation plan,” she added. “Servicers should be aware, though, that the CFPB elected not to set an effective date with optional early compliance.”
For those working in all facets of the industry, this isn’t the only rule that’s still in the works with the CFPB. The comment period on the CFPB’s Know Before You Owe mortgage disclosure rule, also called the TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosures rule, closed on Tuesday. In order to get the latest scoop on that rule as well and get the answered needed to properly implement the rule, sign up for HousingWire’s upcoming editorial webinar here.
