The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is proposing a new type of qualified mortgage, called a “Seasoned Qualified Mortgage,” which would give certain loans qualified mortgage status even if a borrower had missed a small number of payments.

The CFPB’s announcement about the notice of proposed rulemaking states the new “Seasoned QM” category would “encourage innovation and help ensure access to responsible, affordable in the mortgage credit market.”

“Today’s proposal continues the bureau’s work to encourage safe and responsible innovation in the mortgage origination market,” Director Kathleen Kraninger said in a statement. “Our goal through our very deliberative rulemaking process is to protect, promote and preserve the financial well-being of American consumers while at the same time offering access to responsible, affordable mortgage credit.”

To qualify as a Seasoned QM under the proposal, loans would have to be first-lien, fixed-rate covered transactions that have met certain performance requirements over a 36-month seasoning period. Covered transactions would also have to be held on the creditor’s portfolio during the seasoning period, comply with general restrictions on product features and points and fees and meet certain underwriting requirements. For a loan to be eligible to become a Seasoned QM, the proposal would also require that the creditor consider and verify the consumer’s debt-to-income ratio or residual income at origination.

Seasoned QMs would only be available for covered transactions that have no more than two 30-day delinquencies and no delinquencies of 60 or more days at the end of the seasoning period. Also, should there be a disaster or pandemic-related national emergency and as long as certain conditions are met, the proposal would not disqualify a loan from becoming a Seasoned QM for the failure to make full contractual payments if the consumer receives a temporary payment accommodation.

Commenters have 30 days to offer their opinions on the proposed rule.

The move comes as the CFPB is seeking to change the current debt-to-income ratio in the qualified mortgage rule, from a hard 43 percent to an approach that uses a loan’s price to judge it. The CFPB is also seeking to temporarily extend the so-called “GSE patch.”