In addition to the CFPB’s Spring 2018 rulemaking agenda that we have already blogged about, the Spring 2018 rulemaking agendas of several other federal agencies contain some items of interest to consumer financial services providers.

Items of particular interest are:

• OCC.  The OCC plans to issue an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking “for modernizing the current regulations to carry out the purposes of the Community Reinvestment Act.”  The agenda gives a May 2018 estimated date for the ANPRM.  Last month, the Treasury Department issued a memorandum in which it made recommendations for modernizing the CRA.  The memorandum was directed to the primary CRA regulators, consisting of the OCC, the Federal Reserve, and the FDIC.  Of the three agencies, only the OCC’s Spring 2018 rulemaking agenda included a CRA item.

• NCUA.  The NCUA is drafting an amendment to its general lending rule to give federal credit unions an additional option for offering Payday Alternative Loans (PALs).  The proposal would be an alternative to the current PALs rule. It would modify the minimum and maximum loan amounts, eliminate the minimum membership requirement, and increase the maximum loan maturity while incorporating the other features of the current PALs rule.  The NCUA expects to issue a NPRM in May 2018.

• Dept. of Education.  In June 2017, the ED announced that it was postponing  “until further notice” the July 1, 2017 effective date of various provisions of the “borrower defense” final rule issued by the ED in November 2016, including the rule’s ban on arbitration agreements.  It also made a concurrent announcement that it planned to enter into a negotiated rulemaking to revise the “borrower defense” rule.  In October 2017, the ED published an interim final rule postponing the effective date of such provisions of the “borrower defense” final rule until July 1, 2108.  In its Spring 2018 rulemaking agenda, the ED indicates that it expects to issue a final rule in May 2018 delaying the effective date until July 1, 2018 and to also issue a NPRM in May 2018 regarding the “borrower defense” rule.  Presumably, the ED will also issue another postponement of the rule extending beyond July 1.