Helping Expand Lending Practices in Rural Communities Act

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for consumer protection in the financial sector. Its jurisdiction includes banks, credit unions, securities firms, payday lenders, mortgage-servicing operations, foreclosure relief services, debt collectors and other financial companies operating in the United States. The CFPB's creation was authorized by the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, whose passage in 2010 was a legislative response to the 2008 financial crisis and the subsequent Great Recession. ==Provisions of the bill==

This summary is based largely on the summary provided by the Congressional Research Service, a public domain source. The CFPB Rural Designation Petition and Correction Act would amend the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act to direct the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to establish an application process under which a person who lives or does business in a state may apply to have a county designated as a rural area for purposes of a federal consumer financial law. The bill would prescribe criteria for the CFPB to consider when evaluating such an application. The bill would require the CFPB to enter each such application into a sortable, downloadable database publicly accessible through its website. ==Procedural history==

The CFPB Rural Designation Petition and Correction Act was introduced into the United States House of Representatives on July 11, 2013 by Rep. Garland "Andy" Barr (R, KY-6). The bill was referred to the United States House Committee on Financial Services and the United States House Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit. ==Debate and discussion==

The National Association of Federal Credit Unions (NAFCU) supported the bill, arguing that the bill "would be helpful to small creditors, including credit unions, offering mortgages with balloon-payment features in underserved areas, because it would allow them to satisfy the rule’s 'ability to repay' requirements." The NAFCU thought that the application process described by this bill would make "the process for obtaining a rural designation fairer and more transparent." According to the CSBS, the current method of designating a county as "rural" is "formulaic" and is "inflexible when applied to counties with atypical population distributions or geographic boundaries" thus necessitating a more nuanced approach. ==See also==