New mortgage disclosures on the horizon

WASHINGTON, D.C.
July 9, 2012 9:01pm

A proposed rule to create new, easier-to-use mortgage disclosures is being submitted to the Federal Register by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The proposal is the result of more than a year of research, testing, writing, and review, the CFPB says.

For consumers, the proposed forms are simpler than the current forms and highlight certain key pricing information right on the first page, the bureau says. For industry, the forms are easier to explain to customers and the regulatory changes make the rule easier to comply with, it says.

“And for everyone, the proposal offers a way to judge an experiment in public participation,” says the CFPB.

“Early last year, we began a project to develop a more effective, and ideally simpler, set of mortgage disclosures. The Dodd-Frank Act mandates that the CFPB combine the Truth in Lending and Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act mortgage forms. We believe that these new, combined forms would be better if they are designed with input from the people who will actually use them,” it says.

Click on the link below to go the CFPB website to review the proposed rule and offer comments.

Comments on this story

John Wilson 7/12/12 2:55 PM
When HUD changed the HUD-1 back in 2010 it has been a fiasco. Since they never contact anyone in the field for input, now they are changing the HUD-1 to five columns. Consumers know less now about the Hud-1 and will be totally confused when they are shown the new disclosure forms. Leave it to the government, to ruin something that worked perfectly for many years.