The House of Representatives has passed a bill which would amend the Truth in Lending Act (TILA) in respect to the way lenders compute and disclose points and fees information in a mortgage transaction.  The computation is used to determine if a mortgage is high cost or considered a qualified mortgage under ability to repay provisions. 

The legislation, HR 685, would exempt from the computation of points and fees any escrow taken at closing for future payment of insurance.  It would also modify the criteria for exclusion of "certain reasonable charges elsewhere exempted from the computation."

According to the sponsor's summary of the bill it "Excludes from points and fees any such reasonable charges even though a creditor receives compensation, but only in so far as the creditor or its affiliate retains the compensation as a result of their participation in an affiliated business arrangement."

In an analysis of HR 685 on Ballard and Spahr's CFPB Monitor Blog, Richard J. Andreano, Jr. classified the change to the insurance escrow computation as "a technical amendment."  The other change would bring amounts for title charges received by the lender's affiliates into line with current rules regarding those changes paid to non-affiliates which are already excluded from points and fees under existing legislation.

The bill, sponsored by Representative Bill Huizenga (R-MI), was referred on Wednesday to the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.  It has 37 co-sponsors.