The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) recently announced that it plans to propose a series of rules regarding mortgage servicing during the summer of 2012 with the intention of finalizing them by January 2013. This announcement spotlights the special issues that the CFPB will face when it seeks to issue rules. It also points out the importance of public participation in the CFPB rulemaking process, as well as the potential for challenges to CFPB rules.

The Practical Takeaways of Cost-Benefit Requirements

As described more fully below, to the extent cost-benefit requirements apply:

- They provide a significant basis for commen-ters to impact a rulemaking process;

- They may subject the agency’s empirical analysis to scrutiny; and

- They may provide a basis to invalidate a proposed rule.