CFPB Final Mortgage Servicing Rule Amendments Published in Federal Register

The CFPB’s final amendments to the mortgage servicing rules (originally issued August 4, 2016) were recently published in the Federal Register, on October 19, 2016. Various effective dates of the revised rules are dependent on this publication date, with most amendments taking effect on October 19, 2017, and certain other amendments taking effect on April 19, 2018.

The final rule amends the current servicing rules to clarify various aspects of the rules and impose several new requirements. The areas covered generally include: protections for successors in interest to the borrower’s property; a new “delinquency” definition; responses to information requests for GSE loans; revised force-placed insurance disclosures; continuing early intervention requirements for delinquent consumers; changes to the loss mitigation requirements; requirements for prompt crediting of periodic payments for borrowers in temporary loss mitigation programs or permanent loan modifications; requirements for periodic statements for accelerated and modified loans; and revisions to the “small servicer” definition.

The related interpretive FDCPA rule issued concurrently with the final servicing rule also was published in the Federal Register on October 19, 2016, and becomes effective on October 19, 2017.

For more in-depth coverage of the issued final and interpretive rules, see the prior related article in the WBK Newsletter dated September 14, 2016.

The Federal Register publication of the revised mortgage servicing rules can be found at: https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2016-10-19/pdf/2016-18901.pdf.

The Federal Register publication of the interpretive FDCPA rule can be found at: https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2016-10-19/pdf/2016-18902.pdf.