The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has outlined rules that it is considering for residential mortgage servicers.
The CFPB's goal is to assist and protect borrowers from being hit by costly surprise expenses and getting the runaround from their mortgage servicer.
The bureau is aiming to formally propose rules this summer and to finalize them in January 2013.
“The mortgage servicing rules we are considering reflect two basic, common-sense principles – no surprises and no runarounds,” said CFPB Director Richard Cordray yesterday in a release. “For too long, mortgage servicers have not been held accountable to their customers, and the result has been profoundly punishing to homeowners in distress. It’s time to put the ‘service’ back in mortgage servicing.”
CFPB's preliminary factsheet on the mortgage servicing rules is available through this
The Mortgage Bankers Association President and CEO David Stevens released a statement this morning after the announcement by the CFPB.
"National standards that apply to all residential loan servicers have the potential to create more confidence and certainty in the real estate market for both borrowers and servicers alike," he said "Borrowers would be protected by a single standard regardless of where they live and servicers would have one set of rules to comply with everywhere they operate."
Stevens added that the reforms that CFPB Director Richard Cordray outlined seem to closely track the issues the trade group have discussed with him and the CFPB staff.
"MBA looks forward to working with the CFPB and other policymakers and stakeholders to ensure that the process used to develop the standards includes servicers of different sizes and business models," Stevens stated. "It is important that the final rules don't give preference to one business type over any other, nor should they inhibit innovation or discourage new companies from entering the marketplace."
