Final policy guidance for reporting data under HMDA rules set for publication

Final policy guidance describing modifications that the federal consumer financial protection agency intends to apply to loan-level data that financial institutions report under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) and Regulation C before the data is disclosed to the public will be published in the Federal Register as early as Thursday.

The final policy guidance issued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) applies to HMDA data compiled by financial institutions in or after 2018 and made available to the public by the Bureau beginning in 2019.

In December, when the agency released the guidance, CFPB said the data will also include modifications to protect consumer privacy, but will exclude from public disclosure information such as the property address and the applicant’s credit score. The agency said in December that it would also disclose certain information “with reduced precision,” such as by disclosing ranges rather than specific values for an applicant’s age, the loan amount and the number of units in a dwelling.

The delay in the publication of the guidance was attributable to the 35-day partial government shutdown, which ended Saturday.

Also last month, CFPB indicated that other changes are coming to HMDA disclosures. “The Bureau has decided that it would be beneficial to conduct a separate notice-and-comment rulemaking to incorporate any modifications of HMDA data into the text of Regulation C. That rulemaking will enable the Bureau to further consider, on the basis of additional comments, what HMDA data will be disclosed in future years. The Bureau intends to commence such a rulemaking in 2019,” the agency said.

CFPB final policy guidance: Disclosure of Loan-Level HMDA Data