Mortgage fees, exam info sharing, fintech protection on mark up schedule for House

Another markup of legislation will feature multiple bills — including those amending mortgage lending fee definitions, sharing with states of examination information, and protection of financial technology and digital currencies – has been scheduled for Tuesday by the House Financial Services Committee.

Among the seven bills set to be marked up at the hearing – which gets underway at 10 a.m. — three are particularly related to financial institution regulation. According to the memo posted by the committee those are:

  • The Mortgage Fairness Act (H.R. 2570), introduced by Rep. Bill Posey (R-Fla.), would amend the Truth in Lending Act (TILA) to revise the definition of “points and fees” under a high-cost mortgage. The bill would exclude compensation paid in setting the interest rate and for which the consumer was not separately charged, and include compensation paid by a consumer or creditor to an individual employed by or contracting with a mortgage originator. (The bill’s summary notes that a high-cost mortgage designation restricts the terms of a loan and requires a lender to make certain disclosures to the borrower.)
  • The Bank Service Company Examination Act (H.R. 3626), introduced by Rep. Roger Williams (R-Texas), would amend the Bank Service Company Act to enable the sharing of supervisory information with state banking or supervisory agencies and the coordination with state banking agencies to avoid the duplication of examination activities, reporting requirements, and requests for information.
  • The Financial Technology Protection Act (H.R. 5036), introduced by Reps. Ted Budd (R-N.C.) and Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.), establishes an “Independent Financial Technology Task Force,” which would aim to improve coordination between private and public sectors to research and develop legislative and regulatory proposals to decrease terrorist and illicit use of new financial technologies, including digital currencies. According to the committee memo, the measure includes a “Sense of Congress” that, “the Federal Government should prioritize the investigation of terrorist and illicit use of new financial technology, including digital currencies.” The bill also sets up a fund of $450,000, to reward “any person who provides information leading to the conviction of an individual involved with terrorist use of digital currencies. It also establishes a “’FinTech’ Leadership in Innovation Program” which would provide grants for development of “tools and programs to detect terrorist and illicit use of digital currencies administered by the Task Force.”

Markup of H.R. 1511, H.R. 2069, H.R. 2570, H.R. 3626. H.R. 5036, H.R. 5059, and H.R. 6332