In a major win for the industry, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced today that it will not assess penalties with respect to errors in Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data collected in 2018 and reported in 2019, and will not require banks to resubmit data for that period unless errors are found to be material. Banks must begin submitting HMDA data collected in 2017 and beyond using the CFPB’s new online platform on Jan. 1.
“The bureau recognizes the significant systems and operational challenges needed to meet the impending requirements under the rule,” the CFPB said, noting that its decision to not assess penalties on 2018 data will “provide financial institutions an opportunity to focus on identifying any gaps in their implementation of the additional requirements and making improvements in their HMDA compliance management systems for future years.” CFPB added that it “expects that any supervisory examinations of 2018 HMDA data will be diagnostic, to help institutions identify compliance weaknesses, and will credit good-faith compliance efforts.”
The bureau also announced that it is opening a rulemaking to consider various aspects of the 2015 HMDA Rule, including the institutional and transactional coverage tests and the rule’s discretionary data points. ABA has long called on the CFPB to make modifications to the HMDA rules, and welcomed today’s announcement by the bureau. The OCC and the FDIC also made similar statements regarding their treatment of HMDA data. For more information, contact ABA’s Rod Alba.
