CFPB and Other Agencies Issue Statements on “Good-Faith” Compliance with HMDA
With new Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) reporting requirements taking effect on January 1, 2018, the CFPB, FDIC, and OCC have issued statements indicating that they will not penalize financial institutions with respect to errors in data collected in 2018 and reported in 2019. The agencies also announced that they will not require data resubmission unless data errors are material, and any examinations of 2018 data will be diagnostic to help financial institutions identify weaknesses. In addition, credit will be given for “good-faith compliance efforts.” The agencies did not offer definitions or guidance for the terms “material” or “good-faith compliance efforts.”
As required by the Dodd-Frank Act, the CFPB issued a rule in October 2015 that expands the data collected and reported under HMDA, as well as the institutions required to report such data. The CFPB also issued a final rule in August 2017 which made technical corrections to the October 2015 rule and clarified some of its reporting requirements. Most of the new reporting requirements went into effect on January 1, 2018. In issuing the above statements, the agencies acknowledged the significant systems and operational challenges for financial institutions complying with the new requirements.
The CFPB further announced that it will engage in rule-making to reconsider various aspects of the 2015 rule, including the institutional and transactional coverage tests and the rule’s discretionary data points. The rule-making will also re-assess the 2015 rule’s reporting requirements that go beyond the data points specified by the Dodd-Frank Act.
The CFPB statement is available here: http://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/documents/cfpb_statement-with-respect-to-hmda-implementation_122017.pdf.
The FDIC statement is available here: https://www.fdic.gov/news/news/financial/2017/fil17063a.pdf.
The OCC statement is available here: https://www.occ.gov/news-issuances/bulletins/2017/bulletin-2017-62.html.
