Agencies Amend CRA Regulations to Conform to HMDA Regulation Changes and Remove References to Neighborhood Stabilization Program

The OCC, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and the FDIC have amended their respective Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) regulations to conform to changes made by the CFPB to Regulation C, which implements HMDA.  The revisions primarily maintain consistency between the Community Reinvestment Act regulations and the CFPB’s amendment to Regulation C, which will become effective on January 1, 2018.  The amendments to the CRA regulations will also become effective on January 1, 2018.

In particular, the agencies modified the existing definitions of “home mortgage loan” and “consumer loan,” and the public file content requirements.  The revised definition of “home mortgage loan” will now be defined to mean a “closed-end mortgage loan” or an “open-end line of credit.”  Accordingly, the revised definition of “consumer loan” will no longer include “home equity loans” because both home equity loans and home equity lines of credit will be captured by the revised definition of “home mortgage loan.”

Regarding changes to the public file content requirements, financial institutions will no longer be required to provide a HMDA disclosure statement directly to the public.  Instead, financial institutions will only be required to provide a notice that clearly conveys to the public that they can obtain a copy of the institution’s disclosure statement on the CFPB’s website.  However, if the HMDA disclosure statements are not available on the CFPB’s website, financial institutions must continue to maintain such statements in its public file.

As technical revisions, the joint final rule removes obsolete references to the Neighborhood Stabilization Program.