- The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has finalized changes to Mortgage Rules as applied to small lenders that operate primarily in underserved and rural areas. This change eliminates some of the prohibitions under the Ability- to-Repay Rule thereby allowing income to debt ratios as high and 43% and balloon payments, as long as the creditor holds the loan in their own portfolio. The Rule also allows more creditors to be considered small lenders because it increases the number of mortgages a small lender can hold from 500 to 2000. It would also expand the number of geographic locations which can be considered rural.
