Final policy guidance describing mortgage lending data that will be disclosed publicly in 2019 – as well as information that will be excluded from disclosure – was announced Friday by the federal consumer financial protection agency.
In a release, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB, formerly known as the BCFP) said the final policy guidance describing Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data – which the agency said will also include modifications to protect consumer privacy – will exclude from public disclosure information such as the property address and the applicant’s credit score.
The agency said 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.
CFPB noted that the changes in the policy guidance reflect comments received on its proposal issued in September. “The Bureau has considered whether and how HMDA data should be modified prior to its disclosure to the public, in order to protect applicant and borrower privacy while also fulfilling HMDA’s public disclosure purposes,” the agency said in its release.
In addition to the policy guidance, CFPB also 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.
The release from the agency also reiterated CFPB’s intention to reconsider aspects of its 2015 HMDA regulation. “In 2015 the Bureau finalized changes to Regulation C, the CFPB’s rule implementing HMDA, updating the quality and type of data that lenders must collect and report,” the release stated. “These changes also shifted the responsibility for disclosing loan-level HMDA data from lenders to the HMDA supervisory agencies.”
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Announces Policy Guidance on Disclosure of Home Mortgage Data