Happy New Year - HMDA Primer

As we begin a new year - thought we might be able to start with an article about a topic that is going to be talked about a lot in 2018 as a result in changes made to Dodd-Frank.

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So, what is the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA)?

HMDA, enacted by Congress in 1975, requires most mortgage lenders located in metropolitan areas to collect data about their housing-related lending activity, report the data annually to the government, and make the data publicly available. Initially, HMDA required reporting of the geographic location of originated and purchased home loans. In 1989, Congress expanded HMDA data to include information about denied home loan applications, and the race, sex, and income of the applicant or borrower. In 2002, the Federal Reserve Board (the Board) amended the regulation that implements HMDA (Regulation C) to add new data fields, including price data for some loans. HMDA does not prohibit any lending activity, nor is it intended to encourage unsound lending practices or the allocation of credit. 

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What are the purposes of HMDA?

Congress enacted HMDA to:

§  provide the public with information to judge whether lenders are serving their communities;

§  enhance enforcement of laws prohibiting discrimination in lending;

§  provide private investors and public agencies with information to guide investments

            in housing

In another blog post we will mention the data collected as part of HMDA and also the impact of some of the changes proposed.