WASHINGTON–A number of bills of interest to credit unions were passed out of a House committee yesterday, including one that amends the definition of mortgage lending fees.Also passed out of the House Financial Services Committee was legislation that creates a new Fintech Intelligence program.
Passed by the HFSC was HR 2570, the Mortgage Fairness Act (HR 2570), that would amend the Truth in Lending Act (TILA) to revise the definition of “points and fees” under a high-cost mortgage. The legislation would exclude compensation paid in setting the rate on the loan and for which the borrower was not separately charged, and include compensation paid by a consumer or creditor to an individual employed by or contracting with a mortgage originator.Also passed on a unanimous 57-0 vote was HR 5036, the Financial Technology Act, which was revised during the committee mark-up to include a substitute measure that adds a requirement for a substitute to Congress by the president on potential uses of digital currencies and other emerging technologies by bad actors for illicit activities (including evading sanctions and conducting money laundering, among other things), as well as a strategy for mitigating such illicit uses.'
A substitute amendment also renames a task force created by the bill as the Independent Financial Technology Task Force to Combat Terrorism and Illicit Financing and further adds a new program as the “FinTech Leadership in Innovation and Financial Intelligence Program.” The bill calls for the proposed task force 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. The new Fintech program would also provide grants for development of “tools and programs to detect terrorist and illicit use of digital currencies administered by the Task Force.”