A two-year extension of a current, temporary threshold suspending the collection and reporting of data about open-end lines of credit for certain mortgage lenders is provided under a rule issued Thursday by the federal consumer financial protection agency.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) said the extension – to Jan. 1, 2022 – applies to financial institutions that originated fewer than 500 open-end lines of credit for reporting purposes under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA). For data collection years 2020 and 2021, those institutions originating fewer than 500 open-end credit lines in either of the two preceding calendar years will not need to collect and report data with respect to open-end lines of credit, the agency said.
CFPB said its rule also clarifies partial exemptions from certain HMDA requirements that were included in last year’s regulatory relief legislation, the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act (EGRRCPA, S.2155).
The rule incorporates into Regulation C the clarifications from the CFPB’s August 2018 interpretive and procedural rule, the agency said. “This final rule further effectuates the burden relief for smaller lenders provided by the EGRRCPA by addressing certain issues relating to the partial exemptions that the August 2018 rule did not address,” according to the bureau.
The rule issued Thursday, the agency said, finalizes aspects of its May 2019 notice of proposed rulemaking (NPR). Another aspect of the NPR – addressing an increase in the permanent coverage thresholds for closed-end mortgage loans and open-end lines of credit – will be covered in a final rule to be issued next year, the bureau said. This past summer, the bureau reopened the comment period on that increase (until Oct. 15).