According to the NCUA's Office of Examination and Insurance, theConsumer Financial Protection Agency's new final mortgage servicingrules will only affect slightly more than 200 credit unions.

Public Affairs Specialist John Fairbanks said another 40 areexpected to exceed the CFPB's 5,000-loan exemption threshold by January 2014, based on the averagenumber of real estate loans originated each year.

That means of the approximately 6,900 federally insured creditunions, 6,700 qualify for the exemption as of Sept. 30, 2012,Fairbanks said.

Those numbers match CUNA's estimate that 97.4% of credit unionswould fall under the CFPB's exemption. CUNA spokesman Pat Keefeshared his organization's numbers with Credit Union Timeslate Thursday.

The CFPB's final mortgage servicing rules released Thursday add strong newprotections for homeowners struggling to avoid default, forcingservicers to provide borrowers with information regarding optionsavailable to avoid foreclosure and restricting the practice of”dual tracking”, in which a servicer proceeds with foreclosurewhile simultaneously working with the borrower to avoid it.

The rule also mandates new disclosure and statement informationand higher service standards. The final rules are available on theCFPB's website.

CFPB Director Richard Cordray said during a mortgage servicingevent in Atlanta that in the second half of 2012, the bureau'sOffice of Consumer Response received more than 47,000 mortgagecomplaints; more than half were issues relating to loanmodifications, collections, or foreclosure.

NAFCU reported that representatives from two of its membercredit unions attended the Atlanta event: Victor Williams, vicepresident of mortgage lending at the $5.2 billion Randolph-Brooks FCU of Live Oak, Texas, and Emily James, CEO ofthe $41 million Georgia Power FCU of Atlanta.

Williams told the CFPB during an audience participation sessionthat the bureau may want to consider raising the 5,000-loanexemption threshold. According to the credit union's September 20125300 call report, it has 14,177 mortgages on its books worth $1.4billion.

James told NAFCU “I think we have seen efforts made to provideexemptions in the final rules that would indicate that the bureauis actually listening to what the industry is saying.”