Summary: BCFP Partial Exemptions From the Requirements of the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act Under EGRRCPA (Regulation C) (Oct. 2018)

Summary: BCFP Partial Exemptions From the Requirements of the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act Under the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act (Regulation C)

Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection
Prepared by the NASCUS Legislative & Regulatory Division
October 2018

The Bureau is issuing an interpretive and procedural rule to implement and clarify the requirements of Section 104(a) of the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act (the Act), which amended certain provisions of the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act.

The interpretive and procedural rule became effective on September 7, 2018.  You can access the rule here.

Summary

Section 104(a) of the Act amends Section 304(i) of the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) by adding partial exemptions from HMDA’s additional data point requirements for certain insured depository institutions and insured credit unions.  Specifically, Section 304 provides that the requirements of HMDA section 304(b)(5) and (6) shall not apply with respect to the closed-end mortgage loans and open-end lines of credit of an insured depository institution or insured credit union if that institution originates fewer than 500 closed-end mortgage loans in each of the two preceding calendar years.  However, the regulation provides that the partial exemptions are not available to insured depository institutions that have received a “needs to improve record of meeting community needs” rating during each of its two most recent examinations or a rating of “substantial noncompliance in meeting community credit needs” on its most recent CRA (Community Reinvestment Act) examination.

The rule provides clarification and guidance on five general items:

  1.  Partially exempt institutions have the option to report data points covered by the partial exemption.  If a data point that is covered by the partial exemption includes multiple data fields, partially exempt institutions are required to report all of the related data fields if they opt to report.
  2. The terms “closed end mortgage loan” and “open-end mortgage loan” include only loans and lines of credit that are otherwise reportable under HMDA.
  3. Partially exempt institutions are not required to report 26 data points specified under this rule.
  4. Partially exempt institutions are required to report a non-universal loan identifier if they choose not to report a ULI.
  5. For a given reporting year, the CRA ratings used to determine whether the CRA reporting exception applies are the two most recent CRA ratings as of December 31 of the preceding calendar year.