Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Kathleen (“Kathy”) Kraninger slated to testify before the Senate Banking Committee March 10 to provide a semiannual report on bureau activities.
The hearing is slated for 10 a.m.
Earlier this week, Kraninger told a credit union conference in Washington that the agency plans to release its proposal addressing the “GSE patch” in the qualified mortgage/ability to repay rules no later than this May. Currently, the regulation (in the agency’s truth-in-lending integrated mortgage disclosures rule, or TRID) treats mortgages backed by one of the government-sponsored enterprises, or GSEs (Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac) as QM-eligible and does not apply the 43% debt-to-income ratio otherwise required for other loans. This “patch” expires next January.
As she noted earlier this month in testimony before the House Financial Services Committee, after reviewing comments, the bureau has decided to propose to amend the QM rule by moving away from the 43% debt-to-income ratio requirement. Instead, she said, CFPB would propose an alternative such as a pricing threshold to better ensure “that responsible, affordable mortgage credit remains available for consumers.”
Kraninger, during this week’s conference, also said the agency plans in May to address its rule on remittances, particularly an exception to the rule on disclosing actual fees and exchange rates. That exception, which allows providers to disclose estimates of the information in certain circumstances, expires in July.