[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 225 (Wednesday, November 21, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 58773-58775]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-25338]


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FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM


Agency Information Collection Activities: Announcement of Board 
Approval Under Delegated Authority and Submission to OMB

AGENCY: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.

SUMMARY: The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board) 
is adopting a proposal to extend for three years, with revision, the 
Reporting, Recordkeeping, and Disclosure Requirements Associated with 
the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) and Loan/Application Register 
(LAR) required by Regulation C (FR HMDA LAR, OMB No. 7100-0247).

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 
    Federal Reserve Board Clearance Officer--Nuha Elmaghrabi--Office of 
the Chief Data Officer, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve 
System, Washington, DC 20551 (202) 452-3829. Telecommunications Device 
for the Deaf (TDD) users may contact (202) 263-4869, Board of Governors 
of the Federal Reserve System, Washington, DC 20551.
    OMB Desk Officer--Shagufta Ahmed--Office of Information and 
Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget, New Executive 
Office Building, Room 10235, 725 17th Street NW, Washington, DC 20503 
or by fax to (202) 395-6974.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On June 15, 1984, the Office of Management 
and Budget (OMB) delegated to the Board authority under the Paperwork 
Reduction Act (PRA) to approve and assign OMB control numbers to 
collection of information requests and requirements conducted or 
sponsored by the Board. Board-approved collections of information are 
incorporated into the official OMB inventory of currently approved 
collections of information. Copies of the Paperwork Reduction Act 
Submission, supporting statements and approved collection of 
information instrument(s) are placed into OMB's public docket files. 
The Board may not conduct or sponsor, and the respondent is not 
required to respond to, an information collection that has been 
extended, revised, or implemented on or after October 1, 1995, unless 
it displays a currently valid OMB control number.
    Final approval under OMB delegated authority of the extension for 
three years, with revision, of the following information collection:
    Report title: Reporting, Recordkeeping, and Disclosure Requirements 
Associated with the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) and Loan/
Application Register (LAR) required by Regulation C.
    Agency form number: FR HMDA LAR.
    OMB control number: 7100-0247.
    Frequency: Annually and quarterly.
    Respondents: State member banks (SMBs), their subsidiaries, 
subsidiaries of bank holding companies, U.S. branches and agencies of 
foreign banks (other than federal branches, federal agencies, and 
insured state branches of foreign banks), commercial lending companies 
owned or controlled by foreign banks, and organizations operating under 
section 25 or 25A of the Federal Reserve Act.
    Estimated number of respondents: Update policies, procedures, and 
systems (one-time), 505 respondents; Reporting--Tier 1 (annual 
reporter), 2 respondents; Tier 1 (quarterly reporter), 1 respondent; 
Tier 2, 148 respondents; Tier 2 (Crapo), 300 respondents; and Tier 3 
(Crapo), 54 respondents; Recordkeeping--Tier 1 (annual reporter), 2 
respondents; Tier 1 (quarterly reporter), 1 respondent; Tier 2, 448 
respondents; and Tier 3, 54 respondents; and Disclosure--Tier 1 (annual 
reporter), 2 respondents; and Tier 1 (quarterly reporter), 1 
respondent.
    Estimated average hours per response: Update policies, procedures, 
and systems (one-time), 176 hours; Reporting--Tier 1 (annual reporter), 
5,969 hours; Tier 1 (quarterly reporter), 6,903 hours; Tier 2, 1,232 
hours; Tier 2 (Crapo), 986 hours; and Tier 3 (Crapo), 64 hours; 
Recordkeeping--Tier 1 (annual reporter), 4,130 hours; Tier 1 (quarterly 
reporter), 4,130 hours; Tier 2, 83 hours; and Tier 3, 27 hours; and 
Disclosure--Tier 1 (annual reporter), 5 hours; and Tier 1 (quarterly 
reporter), 5 hours.
    Estimated annual burden hours: Update policies, procedures, and 
systems (one-time), 88,880 hours; Reporting--Tier 1 (annual reporter), 
11,938 hours; Tier 1 (quarterly reporter), 27,612 hours; Tier 2, 
182,336 hours; Tier 2: Crapo, 295,800 hours; and Tier 3: Crapo, 3,456 
hours; Recordkeeping--Tier 1 (annual reporter), 8,260 hours; Tier 1 
(quarterly reporter), 16,520 hours; Tier 2, 37,184 hours; and Tier 3, 
1,458 hours; and Disclosure--Tier 1 (annual reporter), 10 hours; and 
Tier 1 (quarterly reporter), 20 hours.
    General description of report: HMDA was enacted in 1975 and is 
implemented by Regulation C. Generally, HMDA requires certain 
depository and non-depository institutions that make certain mortgage 
loans to collect, report, and disclose data about originations and 
purchases of mortgage loans, as well as loan applications that do not 
result in originations (for example, applications that are denied or 
withdrawn). HMDA was enacted to provide regulators and the public with 
loan data that can be used to: (1) Help determine whether financial 
institutions are serving the housing needs of their communities, (2) 
assist public officials in distributing public-sector investments so as 
to attract private investment to areas where it is needed, and (3) 
assist in identifying possible discriminatory lending patterns and 
enforcing anti-discrimination statutes.\1\ Supervisory agencies, state 
and local public officials, and members of the public use the data to 
aid in the enforcement of the Community Reinvestment Act, the Equal 
Credit Opportunity Act, and the Fair Housing Act and to aid in 
identifying areas for residential redevelopment and rehabilitation.
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    \1\ 12 CFR 1003.1(b).
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    Legal authorization and confidentiality: The FR HMDA LAR is 
authorized pursuant to section 304(j) of HMDA (12 U.S.C. 2803(j)), 
which requires that the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection 
(Bureau) prescribe by regulation the form of loan application register 
information that must be reported by covered financial institutions. 
Section 1003.5 of Regulation C implements this statutory provision, and 
requires covered financial institutions to submit reports

[[Page 58774]]

to their appropriate federal agency. Section 304(h)(2)(A) of HMDA (12 
U.S.C. 2803(h)(2)(A)) designates the Board as the appropriate agency 
with respect to the entities described above. The FR HMDA LAR is 
mandatory. HMDA requires the information collected on the FR HMDA LAR 
to be made available to the general public in the form proscribed by 
the Bureau. The Bureau is authorized to redact or modify the scope of 
the information before it is publicly disclosed to protect the privacy 
of loan applicants and to protect depository institutions from 
liability under any federal or state privacy law (12 U.S.C. 
2803(j)(2)(B)). The redacted information may be kept confidential under 
exemption 6 of the Freedom and Information Act, which protects from 
release information that, if disclosed, would ``constitute a clearly 
unwarranted invasion of personal privacy'' (5 U.S.C. 552(b)(6)).
    Current actions: On August 28, 2018, the Board published a notice 
in the Federal Register (83 FR 43868) requesting public comment for 60 
days on the extension, with revision, of the Reporting, Recordkeeping, 
and Disclosure Requirements Associated with the Home Mortgage 
Disclosure Act (HMDA) and Loan/Application Register (LAR) required by 
Regulation C. Consistent with the Bureau's final rules amending 
Regulation C, effective January 1, 2018, as well as recent statutory 
amendments to HMDA that were enacted on May 24, 2018,\2\ the Board 
proposes to revise the FR HMDA LAR by expanding the data reported and 
by modifying the types of institutions required to report and the types 
of loans required to be reported. Beginning January 1, 2018, an 
institution that is otherwise not eligible for a partial exemption 
under section 104(a) of the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and 
Consumer Protection Act (EGRRCPA), as discussed further below, is 
required to collect and report all required data points required under 
HMDA if it either originates 25 or more \3\ closed-end mortgage loans 
or 500 or more open-end lines of credit \4\ secured by a dwelling in 
each of the two preceding years, in addition to meeting other 
applicable coverage criteria.\5\ For these institutions, the final 
rules standardize the loan volume threshold used to determine coverage 
of both depository and non-depository institutions. An institution will 
only report a covered loan if it has met the loan origination threshold 
for that loan category (open-end or closed-end).
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    \2\ On May 24, 2018, the President signed into law the Economic 
Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act (EGRRCPA). In 
relevant part, section 104(a) of EGRRCPA amends HMDA to exempt 
certain insured depository institutions and insured credit unions 
from collecting and reporting those data fields that were required 
by HMDA sections 304(b)(5) and (6), as implemented by the Bureau's 
final rules.
    \3\ Small depository institutions that originated fewer than 25 
closed-end mortgage loans in either 2015 or 2016 ceased HMDA data 
collection on January 1, 2017.
    \4\ Under the 2015 final rules, financial institutions would 
have been required to report home-equity lines of credit if they 
made 100 or more such loans in each of the last two years. On August 
24, 2017, the Bureau amended the final rules to increase the 
institutional coverage and loan threshold from 100 to 500 or more 
loans through calendar years 2018 and 2019. See 82 FR 43088 (Sept. 
13, 2017). This temporary increase in the threshold will provide 
time for the Bureau to consider whether to initiate another 
rulemaking to address the appropriate level for the threshold for 
data collected beginning January 1, 2020.
    \5\ Asset size and geographic location coverage tests also 
apply. See 12 CFR FR 1003.2(g).
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    The final rules generally will require covered institutions to 
collect and report any mortgage loan secured by a dwelling, including 
open-end lines of credit, regardless of the loan's purpose. However, 
the final rules exclude unsecured home-improvement loans (which 
historically were required to be reported), dwelling-secured loans that 
are made principally for a commercial or business purpose, 
agricultural-purpose loans, and other specifically excluded loans.\6\
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    \6\ 12 CFR 1003.2(e).
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    The final rules also will require collection of additional data 
points. For covered institutions that are otherwise not eligible for 
the partial exemption under section 104(a) of EGRRCPA, as discussed 
further below, these additional data points will be reported in 2019. 
These new fields include

 Additional information about the applicant or borrower, such 
as age and credit score
 information about the loan pricing, such as the borrower's 
total cost to obtain a mortgage, temporary introductory rates, and 
borrower-paid origination charges
 information about loan features, such as the loan term, 
prepayment penalties, or non-amortizing features (such as interest only 
or balloon payments)
 additional information about property securing the loan, such 
as property value and property type

    In addition, the Bureau's final rules amend several existing 
requirements, including the requirements for collection and reporting 
of information regarding an applicant's or borrower's ethnicity, race 
and sex.\7\
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    \7\ For the complete list of data points, see 12 CFR 1003.4.
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    Effective May 24, 2018, an institution that is eligible for the 
partial exemption under section 104(a) of EGRRCPA will only need to 
report a subset of the data points required under HMDA if it originates 
fewer than 500 closed-end mortgage loans in each of the two preceding 
calendar years.\8\ Consistent with section 104(a) of EGRRCPA and the 
Bureau's recent statement addressing the applicability of this 
statutory amendment to HMDA,\9\ the Board estimates that institutions 
eligible for the partial exemption will report approximately half the 
data points currently required by the Bureau's final rules on the loans 
described above.\10\
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    \8\ Section 104(a) of EGRRCPA also provides a partial exemption 
to the data collection and reporting requirements under HMDA for 
institutions that originate fewer than 500 open-end lines of credit 
in each of the two preceding calendar years and otherwise meet the 
applicable performance evaluation rating standards under CRA. 
However, institutions eligible for this partial exemption are 
already completely exempt from all data collection and reporting 
requirements under the temporary exemption provided by the Bureau's 
final rules until January 1, 2020.
    \9\ See Bureau Statement, which provides that for loans subject 
to the partial exemption, ``the requirements of [HMDA section 
304(b)(5) an (6)] shall not apply . . . [therefore,] institutions 
are exempt from the collection, recording, and reporting 
requirements for some, but not all, of the data points specified in 
current Regulation C.''
    \10\ Section 104(a) of EGRRCPA does not define the terms 
``closed-end loan'' or ``open-end line of credit.'' However, for 
purposes of estimating burden, the Board is making the assumption 
that these terms will be used consistent with how they are currently 
defined in Regulation C. See 12 CFR 1002.2(d) and (o), which defines 
the term ``closed-end loan'' and ``open-end line of credit,'' 
respectively. Further, for purposes of estimating burden, the Board 
is making the assumption that the loan volume thresholds for closed-
end loans will be determined consistent with how such loan 
thresholds are currently used under Regulation C to determine if a 
transaction must be reported. See 12 CFR 1003.3(c)(11) and (12), 
which provides how to determine the loan threshold volume for 
closed-end loan reporters and open-end line of credit reporters, 
respectively.
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    The Bureau will collect the HMDA/LAR data on behalf of the 
applicable Federal supervisory agency, and the data will be combined 
and aggregated for each Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). Certain 
aggregated data will continue to be publicly available, though the 
Bureau has yet to determine what the information collected in the new 
data fields will be disclosed once the final rules are fully effective. 
The comment period for this notice expired on October 29, 2018. The 
Board did not receive any comments. The revisions will be implemented 
as proposed.


[[Page 58775]]


    Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, November 15, 
2018.
Yao-Chin Chao,
Assistant Secretary of the Board.
[FR Doc. 2018-25338 Filed 11-20-18; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6210-01-P