New measures to ensure that homeowners and struggling borrowers are treated fairly by mortgage servicers were finalized Thursday.
The updated rule requires servicers to provide borrowers with foreclosure protections more than once over the life of the loan, clarifies borrower protections when the servicing of a loan is transferred, and provides important loan information to borrowers in bankruptcy.
The changes also help ensure that surviving family members and others who inherit or receive property usually have the same protections under the mortgage servicing rules as the original borrower.
Mortgage servicers collect payments from the mortgage borrower and forwarding them to the owner of the loan. They usually handle customer service, collections, loan modifications, and foreclosures.
To address widespread mortgage servicing problems, the bureau established rules for servicers that went into effect on Jan. 10, 2014.
The bureau issued proposed amendments to those rules in November 2014, and the final rule issued Thursday adopts many of them. However, the bureau made changes in the final rule after considering public comments.
Most of the provisions of the final rule will take effect 12 months after publication in the Federal Register.
