Credit unions eligible for a partial exemption from mortgage data reporting under the recently enacted regulatory relief law should report non-exempt data points this year, even if they collected all data points prior to the rule change, the federal regulator of credit unions said Monday in what appears to be its first-ever “consumer financial protection update.”
The update, from the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), focuses on the interpretive and procedural rule issued Aug. 31 by the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (BCFP, formerly known as CFPB). That rule provided clarifications regarding the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) partial exemption in the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act (EGRRCPA) and provided a link to updated filing guidelines for 2018 HMDA reporting.
NCUA, in NCUA Consumer Financial Protection Update 18-01, reiterated the key points made in that BCFP ruling, which took effect Sept. 7:
1) It clarifies that only “closed-end mortgage loans” and “open-end lines of credit” that are otherwise reportable under Regulation C (which implements HMDA) count toward the thresholds for the partial exemptions named in the Act.
2) It permits the use of a unique, non-universal loan identifier for certain partially exempt transactions and includes parameters on what constitutes an allowable non-universal loan identifier.
3) It clarifies that insured credit unions qualifying for a partial exemption may optionally report exempt data points so long as they report all data fields that the data point comprises. The rule identifies the seven data points that contain multiple data fields.
4) It includes a table identifying which 26 data points in Regulation C are covered by the partial exemptions named in the Act.
The agency said the rule changes do not affect the NCUA’s supervision approach regarding 2018 HMDA data. “For HMDA data collected in 2018 and reported in 2019, the NCUA does not intend to cite violations for data errors found in the quarterly LARs, nor require data resubmission unless data errors are material,” it wrote.