President Trump has signed a new executive order titled “Promoting Access to Mortgage Credit,” aiming to overhaul the American housing finance system by stripping away decades of regulatory hurdles.
The order directs federal agencies to simplify the mortgage process, specifically targeting rules that the administration says have driven community banks out of the home loan business and made it harder for rural and middle-income families to secure financing.
In the text of the order, the President argues that statutory changes over the last twenty years—including those stemming from the Dodd-Frank Act—have “distorted the structure of the mortgage market” and “increased the compliance costs” for lenders.
The administration’s stated goal is to ensure that any American seeking a home can get a mortgage at a rate that matches their creditworthiness, without being blocked by what the order describes as “unnecessarily burdensome” paperwork and rules.
A major focus of the directive is providing relief to community banks and “smaller banks” with assets under $100 billion. The order instructs the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to consider tailoring Ability-to-Repay (ATR) and Qualified Mortgage (QM) requirements for these institutions.
It also calls for a shift in how bank examiners operate, moving away from a “focus on process and technical compliance” toward evaluating whether a borrower can actually afford the loan. Under the new policy, “good-faith, technical compliance errors” should be met with corrections first, rather than immediate legal enforcement or fines.
The order also moves the mortgage process into the digital age. It asks several departments, including HUD and the VA, to eliminate “wet-signature” requirements and standardize the use of electronic signatures and remote online notarization.
Additionally, it seeks to modernize the appraisal process by encouraging the use of artificial intelligence and “desktop appraisals” to speed up valuations and lower costs for low-risk transactions.
Beyond individual loans, the order addresses the housing supply shortage. It tells regulators to revise guidance to support construction lending by community banks, specifically excluding small residential developments from certain commercial real estate restrictions.
By doing so, the administration hopes to encourage builders to increase the stock of entry-level and owner-occupied housing across the country.
To ensure these changes are tracked, the Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) must submit a report within 120 days. This report will evaluate the efficiency of the national housing markets and recommend further legislative or regulatory moves to close any remaining gaps in the system.
READ: Breaking Ground: Trump Signs Executive Order To Slash Red Tape And Lower Home Prices
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