The deadline for large nonbanks to submit their information to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s new compliance registry is next week but a new Trump-appointed director could change course, as some hope.

Even though the registration process is ongoing, with other nonbanks under CFPB supervision set to register by April 14 and all other covered nonbanks to follow by July 14, the incoming Trump administration could scrap the regulation that created the database in the first place.

The registration process itself, including creating an account and uploading documents, is going fine, said Haydn Richards Jr., a banking and financial services partner at Bradley Arant Boult Cummings law firm. A company he spoke with was surprised that the process wasn’t more intrusive.

But the more difficult thing for nonbanks is understanding who needs to register and when. Given their size, “many mortgage companies won’t need to register until the second round,” Richards said.

Financial services and mortgage lenders have been struggling with what needs to be included in the filing in the first place.

“It’s not always evident on the face of an order whether it does, in fact, need to be placed in the CFPB registry or not,” Richards said. “That’s where a number of companies have come to us, seeking guidance in terms of evaluating the orders and giving our two cents as to whether it would be subject to disclosure.”

While an order might look similar to another, slight wording changes and the laws being referenced is the difference between one having to be included or not.

Since the final rule came out in June, it is not subject to the Congressional Review Act’s six-month lookback that a Republican-controlled Congress is likely to take advantage of to repeal several other regulations put out by current CFPB Director Rohit Chopra, who is expected to be replaced once Pres.-elect Trump takes office.

The registry itself was controversial among nonbanks, with opponents stating it duplicated other sources. Others said it would discourage legal settlements, because typically those include no admission of wrongdoing.

The Mortgage Bankers Association said the CFPB final rule should be modified, continuing its opposition including sending the regulator a comment letter during the rulemaking process, and then a statement when it was issued in June.

“It is a costly and duplicative reporting framework for the mortgage industry that also contradicts their past concerns about lowering costs,” said Justin Wiseman, the organization’s vice president of regulatory affairs and managing regulatory counsel. “We will encourage new leadership at the Bureau to suspend implementation and begin the process to modify the final rule.”

Even though Congress can’t use the CRA, another mechanism the Trump Administration is looking to install could be in play.

“The registry is a prime example of the kind of burdensome and duplicative regulation that the Department of Government Efficiency will target for repeal,” said Peter Idziak, senior associate at the law firm Polunsky Beitel Green. 

“The nonbank registry largely duplicates existing registries of consent orders and enforcement actions, and any purported benefit to consumers and regulators is outweighed by the cost to the industry of complying with the rule,” he said. “So, it will be interesting to see whether DOGE sets its sights on the rule.”

Richards does not expect any immediate cancellation of the registry, as the CFPB created this through the rulemaking process and it would take some work to undo it.

“However, the new administration is going to take a very close look at the CFPB and evaluate all of the things that it’s done in the last four years,” Richards said.

The new administration could change what the CFPB will do with this database. It was going to be used in connection with the repeat offender program but the Bureau hadn’t yet determined whether it was going to make the information public.

Richards hopes the new administration would walk back those plans, especially as most of this information is already public via the NMLS.