12 U.S.C. § 4908
Section 4908 · Effect on other laws and agreements
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 7 court decisions — leading case 710 F. Supp. 2d 385 - Fellows v. CitiMortgage, Inc. (2010)
Most recently applied in Dwoskin v. Bank of Am., N.A. (April 2018)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
(1) In general
With respect to any residential mortgage or residential mortgage transaction consummated after the effective date of this chapter, and except as provided in paragraph (2), the provisions of this chapter shall supersede any provisions of the law of any State relating to requirements for obtaining or maintaining private mortgage insurance in connection with residential mortgage transactions, cancellation or automatic termination of such private mortgage insurance, any disclosure of information addressed by this chapter, and any other matter specifically addressed by this chapter.
(2) Protection of existing State laws
(A) In general
The provisions of this chapter do not supersede protected State laws, except to the extent that the protected State laws are inconsistent with any provision of this chapter, and then only to the extent of the inconsistency.
(B) Inconsistencies
A protected State law shall not be considered to be inconsistent with a provision of this chapter if the protected State law—
(i) requires termination of private mortgage insurance or other mortgage guaranty insurance—
(I) at a date earlier than as provided in this chapter; or
(II) when a mortgage principal balance is achieved that is higher than as provided in this chapter; or
(ii) requires disclosure of information—
(I) that provides more information than the information required by this chapter; or
(II) more often or at a date earlier than is required by this chapter.
(C) Protected State laws
For purposes of this paragraph, the term “protected State law” means a State law—
(i) regarding any requirements relating to private mortgage insurance in connection with residential mortgage transactions;
(ii) that was enacted not later than 2 years after July 29, 1998; and
(iii) that is the law of a State that had in effect, on or before January 2, 1998, any State law described in clause (i).
The provisions of this chapter shall supersede any conflicting provision contained in any agreement relating to the servicing of a residential mortgage loan entered into by the Federal National Mortgage Association, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, or any private investor or note holder (or any successors thereto).
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
References in Text
The effective date of this chapter, referred to in subsec. (a)(1), is 1 year after July 29, 1998, see section 13 of Pub. L. 105–216, set out as an Effective Date note under section 4901 of this title.