The Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection's new Office of Innovation proposed a Disclosure Sandbox through revisions to the Bureau’s existing policy to encourage trial disclosure programs. It is called the Policy to Encourage Trial Disclosure Programs (Policy or TDP Policy), and was established in 2013, but the Bureau has not approved any trial disclosures. The Disclosure Sandbox carries out the Bureau's authority under Section 1032(e), which allows the Bureau to deem a covered person conducting a trial disclosure program to be in compliance with or exempt from a requirement of a Bureau rule or certain federal laws.

The Bureau believes significant opportunities exist to enhance consumer protection by facilitating innovation in financial products and services and enabling companies to research informative, cost-effective disclosures. The Bureau also recognizes that in-market testing, involving companies and consumers in real world situations, may offer particularly valuable information for improving disclosure rules and model forms.

What does this mean for our industry? A Disclosure Sandbox may offer the ability to test TRID disclosures that provide consumers accurate title insurance charges in actual transactions and provide the Bureau the rationale for a permanent fix to TRID’s title insurance disclosures.