CFPB Announces Rulemaking Agenda Through October 2022
Earlier this month, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) published its Fall 2021 Rulemaking Agenda as part of the Fall 2021 Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions. It lists regulatory matters that the Bureau plans to pursue through October 2022.
According to a blog post, the CFPB plans to continue “rulemakings that further our consumer financial protection mission and help to advance the country’s economy recovery from the financial crisis related to the COVID-19 pandemic.” The bureau also continues “to prioritize work that promotes racial and economic equity and supports underserved and marginalized communities by, among other things, facilitating access to fair and affordable credit.”
In January 2022, the Bureau will move to develop a final rule that would require financial institutions to report information pertaining to small business credit applications. The final rule would supplement section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act, which facilitates enforcement of fair lending laws and allows communities and creditors to identify business needs for minority-owned businesses.
The CFPB will also work to address the availability of electronic consumer financial account data in a rule required by section 1033 of the Dodd-Frank Act. The rule will help consumers better understand their finances and make more informed decisions, as financial institutions increasingly use “alternative data” to make credit decisions.
The Bureau plans to issue regulations relating to “Property Assessed Clean Energy” (PACE) financing, a tool for consumers to finance improvements to residential property. It will also develop quality control standards for automated valuation models (AVMs), which will protect against data manipulation, avoid conflicts of interest, and require random reviews and testing.
Another rulemaking plan will address the expected expiration of the LIBOR index, which will lessen financial impact to consumers and provide examples of replacement indices that meet the Regulation Z requirements. The CFPB also plans to review existing regulations and market monitoring to comply with section 1022(d) of the Dodd-Frank Act.
