The House Financial Services Committee (FSC) has begun to schedule hearings for the new year and several bills will be on the agenda that could potentially impact lenders and/or consumers. FSC's Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit has two hearings on the docket in January, the third and fourth on "Legislative Proposals for a More Efficient Federal Financial Regulatory Regime"

According to the committee's memorandum, the following measures will be under discussion.  

  • H.R. 1264, the Community Financial Institution Exemption Act. This bill seeks to amend the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010 (we assume this is a reference to Dodd-Frank) to exempt community financial institutions, (an insured depository institution or credit union with under $50 billion in combined assets), from all rules and regulations issued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). H.R. 1264 was introduced by Roger Williams (R-TX).
  • H.R. 4648, The Home Mortgage Reporting Relief Act of 2017, introduced by Tom Emmer (R-MN), provides a one-year safe harbor for financial institutions from compliance with the data collection and reporting requirements issued by CFPB last September and October as amendments to the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (Regulation C). The legislation also restricts the CFPB's ability to make any of the new data collected and reported publicly available.
  • H.R. 4725, the Community Bank Reporting Relief Act amends the Federal Deposit Insurance Act to direct federal banking regulations to issue new regulations allowing reduced reporting requirements for depository institutions with consolidated assets of $5 billion or less when making their first and third reports of condition for a year. The bill was introduced by Randy Hultgren (R-IL).,
  • H.R. 2683, the Protecting Veterans Credit Act of 2017. This measure would amend the Fair Credit Reporting Act to exclude from consumer credit reports information on a veteran's medical debt if the medical care relating to the debt antedates the report by a year or more. It also excludes information negatively mischaracterizing medical debt that has been fully paid or settled. The bill would also establish a dispute process for veterans who can documents that the Veterans Administration (VA) has liability for the debt.
  • A final, as yet unnumbered, bill submitted by Steve Pearce (R-NM) would amend the Truth in Lending Act to remove certain sellers who finance the sale of residential properties from the definition as a loan originator. The exclusion would apply only to sellers, whether persons or institutions, who finance the sale of no more than five residential properties in a 12-month period, and did not play a role in constructing the residence. The law would not include financing that was considered a high-cost mortgage, featured negative amortization, or contained certain adjustable rate contingencies.

The two upcoming hearings are scheduled for January 9 and 10.