Promoting Access To Mortgage Credit

The order targets regulatory barriers that have raised mortgage costs, limited lender competition, and restricted home loans for creditworthy borrowers, especially from community banks.

What the order does ​

• Directs agencies to revisit and relax mortgage rules for community and smaller banks.
• Seeks tailored regulations and reduced compliance costs under Dodd-Frank, TILA, and RESPA.
• Moves to simplify disclosure, underwriting, refinancing, and rescission rules for mortgages.
• Pushes for easier standards and higher exemption thresholds for mortgage data reporting (HMDA).
• Proposes risk-based capital and liquidity rules for banks proportionate to loan risk.
• Calls for streamlined supervision—focusing on borrower outcomes, not technical compliance.
• Encourages use of digital signatures, online closings, and modernized appraisal practices.
• Supports faster, simpler loss mitigation and servicing exemption rules for smaller banks.
• Limits penalties to willful or reckless legal violations and promotes self-correction.
• Proposes eliminating redundant licensing for mortgage loan officers at smaller banks.
• Orders a review of housing finance efficiency and recommends fixes for regulatory gaps.

Who it affects ​

• Community banks and other banks under $100 billion in assets.
• Mortgage borrowers, including rural, low- and moderate-income, and first-time homebuyers.
• Federal regulators and housing finance agencies.

Context ​

The order responds to a post-crisis environment where heavy regulations reduced competition and lending by community banks, which traditionally serve many underserved borrowers.