Bureau starts voluntary assessment of HMDA

(Nov. 24, 2021) Covering everything from the 2015 rule through last year’s revisions, a voluntary assessment of the CFPB’s Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) rule is underway, according to the Federal Registernotice published this week by the bureau.

Public comment is being taken on the effort until Jan. 21, according to the notice.

Under the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank), the bureau is required to assess any significant rule or order and report on it within five years of its effective date. Public comment on recommendations must also be invited for modifying, expanding, or eliminating the rule or order before publishing a report on the assessment.

CFPB said the assessment is voluntary since the bureau determined that the HMDA rule does not meet the definition of a “significant” rule for purposes of the Dodd-Frank Act, but the bureau will conduct the review in accordance with the statute’s provisions for required assessments.

That said, it noted that this assessment will address the 2015 HMDA final rule and the subsequent HMDA rules issued in 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020. Given the difficulty in isolating the different effects of the 2015 rule and subsequent rules, the bureau said it has decided that considering all of them together “will facilitate a more meaningful assessment” of the rule.

To assess the effectiveness of the HMDA rule, CFPB said it intends to evaluate: Institutional coverage and transactional coverage; data points; benefits of the new data and disclosure requirements; and operational and compliance costs. The bureau said it is incorporating into the assessment all rules that implicate calendar-year HMDA data beginning with data collected in 2018 through data collected in 2021.

LINK:

Federal Register notice: Request for Information Regarding the HMDA Rule Assessment