The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau today issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would raise the coverage thresholds for collecting and reporting data about closed-end mortgage loans and open-end lines of credit under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA).
The proposed rule would provide relief to smaller lenders from HMDA’s data reporting requirements and clarify partial exemptions from certain HMDA requirements that Congress added in the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act.
The Bureau also issued an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeking information on the costs and benefits of reporting certain data points under HMDA.
For closed-end mortgage loans, the proposed rule would permanently increase the coverage threshold from 25 to either 50 or 100 closed-end mortgage loans. For open-end lines of credit, the proposed rule would extend for another two years the current temporary coverage threshold of 500 open-end lines of credit. Once that temporary extension expires, the proposed rule would set the open-end threshold permanently at 200 open-end lines of credit.
HMDA and its implementing rules require many financial institutions to maintain, report and publicly disclose loan-level information about mortgages. These data help show whether lenders are serving the housing needs of their communities; they give public officials information that helps them make decisions and policies; and they shed light on lending patterns that could be discriminatory.
Additional background information on HMDA can be found at https://www.consumerfinance.gov/policy-compliance/guidance/hmda-implementation/