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Warren W. Traiger quoted in American Banker article, “CFPB’s Mulvaney plots HMDA rollback, but it may not matter”

American Banker

Warren Traiger was quoted on May 25, 2018 in an American Banker article, “CFPB’s Mulvaney plots HMDA rollback, but it may not matter,” which discussed acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Mick Mulvaney's remarks to scale back Home Mortgage Disclosure Act requirements, including data fields. The article stated, “The regulatory relief bill that President Trump just signed gave 85% of all banks relief from expanded HMDA data fields mandated by the Dodd-Frank Act. Congress enacted HMDA in 1975 to root out discrimination in mortgage lending. Dodd-Frank mandated 14 additional data fields for HMDA data collection, on top of the nine that already existed. The statute also gave the CFPB the discretion to add additional data fields, and former CFPB Director Richard Cordray used that authority to establish 25 additional data fields. But Mulvaney turned heads earlier this month in a speech to the National Association of Realtors when he signaled he plans to use the same authority to rescind all 25 data fields. Such a move would extend regulatory relief to a wider array of lenders than in the reg relief legislation signed by Trump.”

Traiger added, “Eliminating the HMDA fields not explicitly mandated by Dodd-Frank is a big deal. There are some significant data fields that will be removed but it's not the same as going back to pre-Dodd-Frank HMDA. HMDA data can be useful for the industry in certain cases, by shining a positive light on successful lenders.”

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