InfoBytes Blog
House Financial Services Committee Approves Several Mortgage Bills
On May 22, the House Financial Services Committee resumed activity on a series of bills—several of which are mortgage-related—that it considered earlier this month but for which it had postponed recorded votes. The committee approved all bills previously considered, including (i) H.R. 1779, which would amend TILA’s definition of a “mortgage originator” to exclude manufactured housing retailers unless they received compensation from a lender, mortgage broker, or loan originator, and definition of a “high cost mortgage” for loans under $75,000 to include a higher HOEPA APR trigger and a minimum HOEPA points and fees trigger of the greater of 5% of the transaction amount or $3,000; (ii) H.R. 2673, which would provide that loans retained on an institution’s balance sheet automatically qualify for qualified mortgage treatment under the Ability-to-Repay rule; and (iii) H.R. 4521, which would exempt from mandatory escrow requirements loans secured by a first lien on a consumer’s principal dwelling that are held in portfolio by creditors with assets of $10 billion or less, and would instruct the CFPB to provide regulatory relief for mortgage servicers that annually service 20,000 or fewer mortgage loans.