[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 167 (Friday, August 28, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Pages 52275-52279]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-21288]
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FEDERAL HOUSING FINANCE AGENCY
[No. 2015-N-07]
Privacy Act of 1974; System of Records
AGENCY: Federal Housing Finance Agency.
ACTION: Notice of revision to an existing system of records; request
for comments.
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SUMMARY: In accordance with the requirements of the Privacy Act of
1974, as amended, 5 U.S.C. 552a (Privacy Act), the Federal Housing
Finance Agency (FHFA) is reissuing the system of records entitled
``National Mortgage Database Project'' (FHFA-21). FHFA is re-issuing
this notice in response to comments received on the Notice published on
April 16, 2014 at 79 FR 21458. In reissuing this notice, FHFA requests
further comments on the below revisions to the existing system of
records.
This revised system of records covers the National Mortgage
Database Project (``Project''), which is comprised of three components:
(1) The National Mortgage Database (``NMDB''); (2) the information used
to create the NMDB but will not be contained within the NMDB; and (3)
National Surveys of Mortgage Borrowers (``Surveys''). The Project is
designed to satisfy the Congressionally-mandated requirements of
section 1324(c) of the Federal Housing Enterprises Financial Safety and
Soundness Act of 1992, as amended by the Housing and Economic Recovery
Act of 2008. Under this statutory provision, FHFA must, through surveys
of the mortgage market, collect information on the characteristics of
individual mortgages, including those that are eligible for purchase by
the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and the Federal
Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) as well as those that are
not, and subprime and nontraditional mortgages, including information
on the creditworthiness of those borrowers sufficient to determine
whether they would have qualified for prime lending.
DATES: To be assured of consideration, comments must be received on or
before October 27, 2015. The revisions to the existing system will
become effective on November 6, 2015 unless comments necessitate
otherwise. FHFA will publish a new notice if, in order to review
comments, the effective date is delayed or if changes are made based on
comments received.
ADDRESSES: Submit comments, identified by ``2015-N-07,'' using only one
of the following methods:
Agency Web site: www.fhfa.gov/open-for-comment-or-input.
Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov.
Follow the instructions for submitting comments. If you submit your
comment to the Federal eRulemaking Portal, please also send it by email
to FHFA at [email protected] to ensure timely receipt by FHFA.
Please include ``2015-N-07'' in the subject line of the message.
Hand Delivered/Courier: The hand delivery address is:
Alfred M. Pollard, General Counsel, Attention: Comments/2015-N-07,
Federal Housing Finance Agency, 400 Seventh Street SW., Washington, DC
20024. To ensure timely receipt of hand delivered package, please
ensure that the package is delivered to the Seventh Street entrance
Guard Desk, First Floor, on business days between 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
U.S. Mail, United Parcel Service, Federal Express, or
Other Mail Service: The mailing address for comments is: Alfred M.
Pollard, General Counsel, Attention: Comments/2015-N-07, Federal
Housing Finance Agency, 400 Seventh Street SW., Washington, DC 20024.
Please note that all mail sent to FHFA via the U.S. Postal Service is
routed through a national irradiation facility, a process that may
delay
[[Page 52276]]
delivery by approximately two weeks. For any time-sensitive
correspondence, please plan accordingly.
See SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION for additional information on
submission and posting of comments.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Forrest Pafenberg, Program Manager,
National Mortgage Database Project, [email protected] or (202)
649-3129; Stacy Easter, Privacy Act Officer, [email protected] or (202)
649-3803; or David A. Lee, Senior Agency Official for Privacy,
[email protected] or (202) 649-3803 (not toll-free numbers), Federal
Housing Finance Agency, Eighth Floor, 400 Seventh Street SW.,
Washington, DC 20024. The telephone number for the Telecommunications
Device for the Deaf is 800-877-8339.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Comments
FHFA seeks public comments on the revised system of records for the
National Mortgage Database Project (FHFA-21) and will take all comments
into consideration. See 5 U.S.C. 552a(e)(4) and (11). In addition to
referencing ``Comments/2015-N-07,'' please reference ``National
Mortgage Database Project'' (FHFA-21).
All comments received will be posted without change on the FHFA Web
site at http://www.fhfa.gov, and will include any personal information
provided, such as name, address (mailing and email), and telephone
numbers. In addition, copies of all comments received will be available
without change for public inspection on business days between the hours
of 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., at the Federal Housing Finance Agency, 400
Seventh Street, SW., Washington, DC 20024. To make an appointment to
inspect comments, please call the Office of General Counsel at (202)
649-3804.
II. Introduction
This revised system of records covers the National Mortgage
Database Project (``Project''), which is comprised of three components:
(1) The National Mortgage Database (``NMDB''); (2) the information used
to create the NMDB but will not be contained within the NMDB; and (3)
National Surveys of Mortgage Borrowers (``Surveys''). Each of these
components is described below.
The revised system of records, ``National Mortgage Database
Project'' (FHFA-21), will contain records related to the creation of
the NMDB. The core data for the NMDB are drawn from data maintained by
one of the three national credit repositories as well as data to be
drawn from: (1) Administrative data sources including existing mortgage
data from Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the Federal Home Loan Banks (Banks),
the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), the United States Department
of Veterans Affairs (VA), and other government agencies; (2) Home
Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data; and (3) other commercially
available mortgage, property, and appraisal sources. Data from these
various sources will be used to create and update the NMDB. Once the
NMDB has been created from these sources, the input datasets will be
permanently deleted and will not be maintained by the Project. The NMDB
does not contain and is not a credit report or set of credit reports as
defined under the Federal Credit Report Act, 15 U.S.C. 1681 et seq.
Any information on borrower(s) in the NMDB that is available to
FHFA, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), or other
authorized users of the NMDB is de-identified and does not include
directly-identifiable information, such as borrower/co-borrower name,
address, Social Security number or date of birth.
Construction of the NMDB begins with a random 1-in-20 sample of all
first lien mortgages in the credit repository's files that were
outstanding at any time between January 1998 (the start date of the
data collection at the credit repository) and June 2012 (the start date
of the Project). Each quarter a random 1-in-20 sample of mortgages that
are newly reported to the credit repository is added. Currently the
NMDB has been updated with this credit repository data through June
2015 and it will continue to be updated in the future. Mortgages remain
in the NMDB until they terminate through prepayment (including
refinancing), foreclosure or maturity. Information from credit
repository files on each borrower associated with the mortgages in the
NMDB will be collected from one year prior to origination to one year
after termination of the mortgage.
In addition to the creation of the NMDB, the Project includes
voluntary surveys of mortgage borrowers as part of the Surveys. The
Surveys' target universe is first-lien closed-end residential mortgages
and the associated borrowers. The Surveys supplement the NMDB with
information not currently available through existing data sources. To
achieve this objective, the Surveys draw their samples from mortgages
that are part of the NMDB.
Responses to the Surveys will be maintained in de-identified form
as part of the Project. Individuals contacted by the Surveys may choose
to opt out of any future communications about the Surveys.
Participation in the Surveys and opt-out list is voluntary and the opt-
out list is kept separate from the NMDB by a third party vendor. The
opt-out list contains the name and address of those individuals who
have opted out of receiving communications about the Surveys in order
to ensure that these individuals do not receive any future
communications about the Surveys after opting out. FHFA and CFPB
employees will not have access to this list.
This notice satisfies the Privacy Act requirement that an agency
publishes a system of records notice in the Federal Register when there
is an addition or change to the agency's systems of records. Although
Congress established general exemptions and specific exemptions that
could be used to exempt records from provisions of the Privacy Act, the
Director of FHFA has determined that records and information in this
system of records are not exempt from the requirements of the Privacy
Act.
As required by the Privacy Act, 5 U.S.C. 552a(r), and pursuant to
paragraph 4c of Appendix I to OMB Circular No. A-130, ``Federal Agency
Responsibilities for Maintaining Records About Individuals,'' dated
February 8, 1996 (61 FR 6427, 6435 (February 20, 1996)), FHFA has
submitted a report describing the system of records covered by this
notice to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform of the House
of Representatives, the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental
Affairs of the Senate, and the Office of Management and Budget.
III. Revised System of Records
The revised system of records notice is set out in its entirety and
described in detail below. The revisions from the previous SORN that
FHFA issued in April 2014 include: (1) Deleting certain data fields
that will not be collected and will not be part of the Project (i.e.,
language, religion, census block, telephone number, and latitude/
longitude); (2) clearly delineating the individuals covered by the
system; (3) deleting various routine uses and adding one where de-
identified data may be shared with federal financial regulators and
other U.S. Government agencies for supervisory purposes and for
conducting research and analysis related to the mortgage markets; (4)
clearly articulating that for purposes of updating the database,
information will be updated through a de-identified database-specific
constructed loan identifier or encrypted unique identification numbers
that will be used solely to aid in the compiling and
[[Page 52277]]
tracking of the data used from other matching datasets; and (5)
notifying the public of the existence of an opt-out list and the
information contained therein.
FHFA-21
SYSTEM NAME:
National Mortgage Database Project.
SECURITY CLASSIFICATION:
Sensitive but unclassified.
SYSTEM LOCATION:
Federal Housing Finance Agency, 400 Seventh Street SW., Washington,
DC 20024, and Experian Information Solutions Inc., 475 Anton Blvd.,
Costa Mesa, CA 92626.
CATEGORIES OF INDIVIDUALS COVERED BY THE SYSTEM:
Across the three components of the National Mortgage Database
Project, information about individuals in the system will contain
records that have been collected from: (1) Credit repository data; (2)
administrative data sources including existing mortgage data from the
Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae), the Federal Home
Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac), the Federal Home Loan Banks
(Banks), the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), the United States
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and other government agencies; (3)
Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data; (4) members of the public as
part of the National Surveys of Mortgage Borrowers; and (5) other
commercially available mortgage, property, and appraisal sources.
CATEGORIES OF RECORDS IN THE SYSTEM:
This revised system of records covers the National Mortgage
Database Project (``Project''), which is comprised of three components:
(1) The National Mortgage Database (``NMDB''); (2) the information used
to create the NMDB but will not be contained within the NMDB; and (3)
National Surveys of Mortgage Borrowers (``Surveys''). Across these
three components of the NMDB Project, records include five forms of
loan-level data: mortgage record, real estate transaction, household
demographic data on the borrower(s), physical characteristics of the
house and neighborhood, and performance data on the mortgage and credit
lines (i.e., credit cards, student loans, auto loans, and other loans
reported to credit bureaus) of the mortgage borrower(s). The three
components are described below.
Under the first component and when the development phase of the
NMDB is completed, the NMDB will contain de-identified records of
borrowers and properties associated with a 1-in-20 nationally
representative random sample of mortgages. These de-identified records
may include: (1) Borrower(s) information (age, ZIP Code, race/
ethnicity, gender, presence of children by various age categories,
household income, credit score(s) of borrower(s) at origination,
deceased indicator, and marital status); (2) Mortgage Information
(current balance, actual monthly payment, delinquency grid, scheduled
monthly payment, refinanced amount, and bankruptcy information); (3)
Credit card/other loan information (account type, credit amount,
account balance amount, account past due amount, account minimum
payment amount, account actual payment amount, account high balance
amount, account charge off amount, and second mortgage); (4) Property
Attributes (property type, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, square
footage, lot size, year built/age of structure, units in structure,
most recent assessed value (per tax roll), year of most recent assessed
value, effective age of structure, project name, and neighborhood
name); (5) Real Estate Transaction Attributes (sales price, down
payment, occupancy status (own, rent), new versus existing home,
county, census tract, and date purchased); and (6) Mortgage
Characteristics Attributes (mortgage product and purpose, origination
date, acquisition date, amount of mortgage, refinanced amount, amount
of down payment, term of mortgage, interest rate of mortgage, source of
mortgage/mortgage channel, mortgage insurance type, loan to value at
origination, origination amount/credit limit, originator, servicer(s),
debt to income ratio at origination, number of borrower(s), number of
units covered by the mortgage and the total number of units in the
associated property, presence of prepayment penalty, origination points
paid by borrower(s), discount points paid by borrower(s), balloon
payment date/amount, percent of down payment, and secondary market
indicator).
Under the second component, and solely for the purposes of matching
records in the NMDB with other datasets as part of the construction of
the NMDB, records may include: borrower(s) information such as name,
address, Social Security number, date of birth, and mortgage account
number. Records with direct identifying information, including name,
address, Social Security numbers, date of birth, and mortgage account
numbers, will be used solely by a credit repository behind a firewall
for purposes of matching the records with other datasets, which will
better enable FHFA to perform the statutory functions identified below.
FHFA and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) employees will not
have access to this direct identifying information.
The matching will be conducted by a credit repository. The matching
will be conducted behind a firewall using a blind matching process on a
1-in-20 nationally representative random sample. FHFA and CFPB
employees will not have access to this blind matching process.
After the matching is complete, the records with direct identifying
information (name, Social Security number, date of birth, and mortgage
account number) will be permanently destroyed by the credit repository
and will not be maintained. A de-identified dataset, as described
above, will be used for conducting research on and analysis of the
mortgage markets.
FHFA may obtain updates or supplements to this de-identified
dataset and, in those circumstances, may use record locaters unique to
the source providing the update in order to update or supplement
records. In these instances, FHFA's credit repository vendor may retain
property address solely for the purpose of updating matches or
conducting future matches with new data sets. FHFA and CFBP employees
will not have access to this information.
Under the third component, the Surveys will collect and maintain
records on demographic information from a subset of individuals who
voluntarily respond to the Surveys to include: education status,
military status, financial events and life events in the last couple of
years, and assets and wealth. An opt-out list will be maintained by a
third party vendor containing the name and address for those
individuals who have opted-out in order to ensure that they do not
receive future communications from the Surveys. FHFA and CFPB employees
will not have access to this list.
AUTHORITY FOR MAINTENANCE OF THE SYSTEM:
12 U.S.C. 4511, 4513, 4543, and section 1324 of the Federal Housing
Enterprises Financial Safety and Soundness Act of 1992 (Safety and
Soundness Act) as amended by section 1125 of the Housing and Economic
Recovery Act of 2008 (12 U.S.C. 4544 and 4544(c)).
PURPOSE(S):
The records in this system of records are collected and maintained
in order to facilitate mandatory reporting under the
[[Page 52278]]
Safety and Soundness Act as well as to conduct research, performance
modeling, and examination monitoring. The statutory mandate for a
monthly mortgage market survey requires FHFA to survey the full breadth
of the mortgage market, including mortgages that are eligible for
purchase by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and those that are not. Under
this statutory mandate, FHFA is required to collect data on the
characteristics of individual mortgages including, among other items,
the price of the property, the terms of mortgages, and the
creditworthiness of borrowers. The records in the opt-out list are
maintained by a third party vendor in order to ensure that those
individuals who have opted out of receiving communications about the
Surveys do not receive any further communications.
ROUTINE USES OF RECORDS MAINTAINED IN THE SYSTEM, INCLUDING CATEGORIES
OF USERS AND THE PURPOSES OF SUCH USES:
In addition to those disclosures generally permitted under 5 U.S.C.
552a(b) of the Privacy Act, these records or information contained
therein may specifically be disclosed outside FHFA as a routine use
pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 552a(b)(3) as follows:
(1) When (a) it is suspected or confirmed that the security or
confidentiality of information in the system of records has been
compromised; (b) FHFA has determined that as a result of the suspected
or confirmed compromise there is a risk of harm to economic or property
interests, identity theft or fraud, or harm to the security or
integrity of this system or other systems or programs (whether
maintained by FHFA or another agency or entity) that rely upon the
compromised information; and (c) the disclosure is made to such
agencies, entities, and persons who are reasonably necessary to assist
in connection with FHFA's efforts to respond to the suspected or
confirmed compromise and prevent, minimize, or remedy such harm.
(2) To members of advisory committees that are created by FHFA or
by Congress to render advice and recommendations to FHFA or to
Congress, to be used solely in connection with their official,
designated functions.
(3) To contractor personnel and other authorized individuals
working on a contract, cooperative agreement, or project for FHFA or
CFPB related to the NMDB.
(4) To the Office of Management and Budget, Department of Justice,
Department of Homeland Security, or other federal financial regulatory
agencies to obtain advice regarding statutory, regulatory, policy, and
other requirements related to the purpose for which FHFA collected the
records.
(5) To the National Archives and Records Administration or other
federal agencies pursuant to records management inspections being
conducted under the authority of 44 U.S.C. 2904 and 2906.
(6) To a federal agency, organization, or individual for the
purpose of performing audit or oversight operations as authorized by
law, but only such information as is necessary and relevant to such
audit or oversight function.
(7) To an FHFA regulated entity.
(8) De-identified, anonymized data with the CFPB in order to
facilitate reporting under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and
Consumer Protection Act (Pub. L. 111-203), as well as to conduct
research, performance modeling, and market monitoring.
(9) De-identified, anonymized data to federal financial regulators
and other U.S. Government agencies for conducting research and analysis
related to the mortgage markets and for supervisory purposes; servicers
are not identified and information cannot be used for enforcement
actions against servicers.
DISCLOSURE TO CONSUMER REPORTING AGENCIES:
None.
POLICIES AND PRACTICE FOR STORING, RETRIEVING, ACCESSING, RETAINING AND
DISPOSING OF RECORDS IN THE SYSTEM:
STORAGE:
Records are maintained in electronic format, paper form, and
magnetic disk or tape. Electronic records are stored in computerized
databases. Paper and magnetic disk or tape records are stored in locked
file rooms, locked file cabinets, or locked safes.
RETRIEVABILITY:
For the purposes of compiling data from the data sources under the
second component of the Project, the records may contain anonymized
personal identifiers (i.e., a database-specific constructed loan
identifier or encrypted unique identification numbers) for purposes of
matching the records with other datasets. After the matching is
complete, a de-identified copy of the matched dataset will be used
under the first component of the Project for conducting research and
analysis as described above. FHFA may retain these anonymized personal
identifiers after the matching, but only for the purpose of performing
similar matches on future data acquisitions. Under the third component
of the Project for the Surveys opt-out list, information will be held
by a third party vendor and may be retrieved by that vendor by name or
address.
SAFEGUARDS:
Records are safeguarded in a secured environment. Buildings where
records are stored have security cameras and 24-hour security guard
service. Computerized records are safeguarded through use of access
codes and other information technology security measures. Paper records
are safeguarded by locked file rooms, locked file cabinets, or locked
safes. Access to the records is restricted to those individuals who
require access to the records in the performance of official duties
related to the purposes for which the system is maintained and who have
agreed, in writing, to maintain the confidentiality and integrity of
the data.
RETENTION AND DISPOSAL:
Records are maintained in accordance with National Archives and
Records Administration and FHFA retention schedules. Records are
disposed of according to accepted techniques.
SYSTEM MANAGER(S) AND ADDRESS:
Project Manager, National Mortgage Database Project, Federal
Housing Finance Agency, 400 Seventh Street SW., Washington, DC 20024.
NOTIFICATION PROCEDURES:
Direct inquiries as to whether this system contains a record
pertaining to an individual to the Privacy Act Officer. Inquiries may
be mailed to the Privacy Act Officer, Federal Housing Finance Agency,
400 Seventh Street SW., Washington, DC 20024, or electronically at
http://www.fhfa.gov/AboutUs/FOIAPrivacy/Pages/Privacy.aspx in
accordance with the procedures set forth in 12 CFR part 1204.
RECORD ACCESS PROCEDURES:
Direct requests for access to the Privacy Act Officer. Requests may
be mailed to the Privacy Act Officer, Federal Housing Finance Agency,
400 Seventh Street SW., Washington, DC 20024, or can be submitted
electronically at http://www.fhfa.gov/AboutUs/FOIAPrivacy/Pages/Privacy.aspx in accordance with the procedures set forth in 12 CFR part
1204.
CONTESTING RECORD PROCEDURES:
Direct requests to contest or appeal an adverse decision for a
record to the Privacy Act Appeals Officer. Requests may be mailed to
the Privacy Act Appeals Officer, Federal Housing
[[Page 52279]]
Finance Agency, 400 Seventh Street SW., Washington, DC 20024, or can be
submitted electronically at http://www.fhfa.gov/AboutUs/FOIAPrivacy/Pages/Privacy.aspx in accordance with the procedures set forth in 12
CFR part 1204.
RECORD SOURCE CATEGORIES:
The information in this system will be obtained from: (1) Credit
repository data; (2) administrative data sources, including mortgage
data from Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the Banks, FHA, VA, and other
government agencies; (3) HMDA data; (4) other commercially-available
mortgage, property, and appraisal sources; and (5) individuals who
voluntarily respond to the Surveys.
EXEMPTIONS CLAIMED FOR THE SYSTEM:
None.
Dated: August 20, 2015.
Melvin L. Watt,
Director, Federal Housing Finance Agency.
[FR Doc. 2015-21288 Filed 8-27-15; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8070-01-P