Topic: Domestic Commerce — Banking
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Date: 2015-03-04 00:00:00

Community Lending Enhancement and Regulatory Relief Act of 2015 or the CLEARR Act of 2015

This bill amends the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act to exempt from its annual privacy policy notice requirement any financial institution which: (1) provides nonpublic personal information only in accordance with specified requirements, and (2) has not changed its policies and practices regarding disclosures of nonpublic personal information from those disclosed in the most recent disclosure sent to consumers.

The federal banking agencies are directed to study jointly the appropriate capital requirements for mortgage servicing assets for nonsystemic banking institutions. Mortgage servicing assets are those resulting from contracts to service loans secured by real estate, where such loans are owned by third parties. A nonsystemic banking institution is any banking institution other than one identified by the Financial Stability Board as a global systemically important bank.

Any regulatory implementation of either Basel III or National Credit Union Administration capital requirements about mortgage servicing assets for nonsystemic banking institutions is prohibited until six months after a report to Congress on the study.

 The Truth in Lending Act (TILA) is amended to direct the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Federal Reserve Board) to exempt from certain escrow or impound requirements a loan secured by a first lien on a consumer's principal dwelling if the loan is held by a creditor with assets of $10 billion or less.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau must provide either exemptions to or adjustments from the mortgage loan servicing and escrow account administration requirements of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act of 1974 for servicers of 20,000 or fewer mortgage loans.

The TILA is also amended to exempt from property appraisal requirements a higher-risk mortgage loan of $250,000 or less if it appears on the loan creditor's balance sheet for at least three years.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Act is revised to direct federal banking agencies to issue regulations that allow a reduced reporting requirement for depository institutions meeting certain criteria when making the first and third report of condition for a year.

If a depository financial institution receives an order to request a funds transfer (entry) via an automated clearing house, it shall not be required to verify that the entry is not a prohibited monetary transaction if the originating depository financial institution has warranted its compliance with the sanctions programs administered by the Office of Foreign Assets Control.

The Federal Reserve Board must revise the Small Bank Holding Company Policy Statement on the Assessment of Financial and Managerial Factors to raise its consolidated asset threshold from $1 billion to $5 billion.

The TILA is again amended to create a safe harbor from lawsuit for creditors that are depository institutions for any failure to comply with certain requirements with respect to a residential mortgage loan, and the banking regulators are required to treat such a loan as a qualified mortgage, if the creditor has, since the loan's origination, held it on its balance sheet and all prepayment penalties with respect to the loan comply with specified limitations.

A safe harbor from lawsuit is also created for mortgage originators for steering a consumer to a residential mortgage loan if:

 the creditor is a depository institution and has informed the mortgage originator that it intends to hold the loan on its balance sheet for the life of the loan, and the mortgage originator informs the consumer that the creditor intends to do so.