TRID and Juneteenth: When Can I Close?

When former President Biden signed the law creating Juneteenth on June 17,  2021, with only two days until the new federal holiday, it suddenly created a new federal holiday that was excluded from the specific “business day” definition (this definition excludes Sundays and federal holidays specified in 5 U.S.C. 6103(a)) under the CFPB’s Regulation Z, which implements TILA.  There were a lot of questions about how the industry should treat pending mortgage loan closings under the TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure rule (TRID) and other TILA time periods that use the specific “business day” definition (e.g., when a consumer must receive the Closing Disclosure before consummation of the loan, rescission, and the mailbox rules) in light of this new federal holiday (which I wrote about here).  To its credit, the CFPB quickly issued a statement acknowledging the issue, and then provided formal guidance (which I wrote about here and here).  The CFPB’s guidance mainly dealt with whether Juneteenth would be a “business day” for loans that straddled the June 17 date when the federal holiday was created.  But now that Juneteenth has been with us for a few years, are there any lingering questions about TRID timing and Juneteenth?

Note that Juneteenth can be any day of the week, depending on the year, including Saturday.  For holidays that can potentially fall on a Saturday, the CFPB’s Regulation Z has official staff commentary that states:

When one of these holidays (July 4, for example) falls on a Saturday, Federal offices and other entities might observe the holiday on the preceding Friday (July 3). In cases where the [specific business day definition] applies, the observed holiday (in the example, July 3) is a business day.

But this commentary does not apply to Juneteenth this year, because this year the holiday falls on a Thursday (tomorrow).  Although this mid-week occurrence can happen with other holidays, like July 4th, I have received some questions about how this Thursday holiday affects the timing of the Closing Disclosure (CD), especially if a closing is scheduled for Thursday. 

Remember that the TRID rule requires the creditor to “ensure that the consumer receives the [initial CD] no later than three business days before consummation.”  I have always seen some people count business days forward from the day the consumer receives the CD, and others count backwards from the day of closing.  The TRID rule has official staff commentary that states, “if consummation is scheduled for Thursday, the creditor satisfies this requirement by hand delivering the disclosures on Monday, assuming each weekday is a business day.”  But the official staff commentary does not expressly say which direction to count.  And when you’ve got a federal holiday on a weekday (in this case, Thursday), and potentially the day of closing or the day the disclosures were delivered, how you count can affect your decision of whether you have met your TRID or other TILA obligation. 

Make sure your software and practice align with your (or your investor’s) interpretation of how to treat a mid-week federal holiday under the different timing requirements of TILA.  And then you can celebrate Juneteenth this year without worrying about your TILA timing. 

Please email me at rich@garrishorn.com if you would like to discuss.