InfoBytes Blog
Agencies highlight downpayment assistance, child privacy in regulatory agendas
Recently, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs released fall 2022 regulatory agendas for the FTC and HUD. With respect to an FTC review of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA) that was commenced in 2019 (covered by InfoBytes here), the Commission stated in its regulatory agenda that it is still reviewing comments. COPPA “prohibits unfair or deceptive acts or practices in connection with the collection, use and/or disclosure of personal information from and about children under the age of 13 on the internet,” and, among other things, “requires operators of commercial websites and online services, with certain exceptions, to obtain verifiable parental consent before collecting, using, or disclosing personal information from or about children.”
HUD stated in its regulatory agenda that it anticipates issuing a notice of proposed rulemaking in March that would address mortgage downpayment assistance programs. The Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2018 amended the National Housing Act to add a clause that prohibits any portion of a borrower’s required minimum cash investment from being provided by: “(i) the seller or any other person or entity that financially benefits from the transaction, or (ii) any third party or entity that is reimbursed, directly or indirectly, by any of the parties described in clause (i).” According to the agenda, FHA continues to receive questions about prohibitions on persons or entities that may financially benefit from a mortgage transaction, including “whether down payment assistance programs operated by government entities are being operated in a fashion that would render such assistance prohibited.” A future NPRM would clarify the circumstances in which government entities are deriving a prohibited financial benefit.