Skip to main content
Menu Icon
Close

InfoBytes Blog

Financial Services Law Insights and Observations

CFPB releases final policy on HMDA data disclosure

Federal Issues CFPB Mortgages HMDA Disclosures

Federal Issues

On December 21, the CFPB announced final policy guidance covering the loan-level HMDA data the Bureau intends to make publicly available in 2019. The proposed policy was issued in September 2017 (covered by InfoBytes here) and, after reviewing public comments, the Bureau agreed to modify certain data disclosures to address concerns regarding consumers’ privacy. The final policy now excludes from public disclosure (i) the loan identifier; (ii) application and action taken dates; (iii) the property address; (iv) the applicants’ credit scores; (v) the mortgage originator’s NMLS identifier; and (vi) the results generated by the automated underwriting system. The Bureau will also exclude free-form text fields which report data such as the applicant’s race or ethnicity. The Bureau further announced that it will publish data for (i) the applicants’ ages; (ii) the loan amount; and (iii) the number of units in the dwelling as ranges rather than specific values.

The announcement states that the Bureau intends to initiate in a separate notice-and-comment rulemaking in 2019 to incorporate any modifications of HMDA data into the text of Regulation C and will use the rulemaking to consider what HMDA data will be disclosed in future years. Additionally, the CFPB reiterated its intention to engage in a rulemaking to reconsider aspects of the 2015 HMDA rule, which was originally announced in December 2017 (covered by InfoBytes here).