Homeowners’ Escrow Savings Act

Homeowners get interest on escrow

If enacted, this bill would require mortgage servicers to pay interest to borrowers on funds held in escrow accounts for federally related mortgage loans. Each month, interest would equal the account's actual average daily balance multiplied by (annual rate ÷ 12). The annual rate would not be less than the year's weekly average yield on 1-year U.S. Treasury securities, rounded to the nearest tenth of a percentage point. Servicers would credit any interest to the escrow account when they issue the required escrow statement, and those statements would have to be as accurate as possible based on information reasonably known or accessible to the servicer. The bill would also define how servicers must estimate taxes by listing factors they must consider, including reassessments of property value, significant property improvements, known future tax-rate changes, borrower-notified exemptions or adjustments, other relevant information the servicer has, and any additional factors the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau may require.