Richard Cordray, Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), announced new rules for mortgage servicers, the companies which collect home loan payments from borrowers. He spoke at Operation Hope, a nonprofit which promotes financial literacy for consumers.
The rules, which require mortgage servicers to be more transparent and accountable with borrowers, will be formally proposed this summer for public comment and finalized on January 21, 2013. They would require mortgage servicers to provide consumers with clear and timely information about changes to their mortgages.
Cordray was the Attorney General of Ohio before his controversial recess appointment as CFPB Director by President Obama on January 4, 2012. Congressional Republicans complained that the President did not have the power to bypass the Senate nomination process because Congress was not officially in recess.
Cordray's nomination was stalled in the Senate by GOP members who opposed the creation of the consumer bureau, which was authorized as part of the Dodd-Frank regulatory reform act of 2010.
Congressional Republicans also complain that CFPB rules are "too subjective." During a House Financial Services Committee hearing in March, Chair Spencer Bachus (R-AL) said that the standards for deceptive or abusive practices were "too vague."