[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 97 (Thursday, May 19, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 30480-30494]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-10772]


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FEDERAL HOUSING FINANCE AGENCY

[No. 2022-N-5]


Proposed Collection; Comment Request

AGENCY: Federal Housing Finance Agency.

ACTION: 30-Day notice of submission of information collection for 
approval from the Office of Management and Budget.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction 
Act of 1995 (PRA), the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is seeking 
public comments concerning an information collection known as the 
``American Survey of Mortgage Borrowers (ASMB),'' which has been 
assigned control number 2590-0015 by the Office of Management and 
Budget (OMB). FHFA intends to submit the information collection to OMB 
for review and approval of a three-year reinstatement of the control 
number, which expired on March 31, 2021.

DATES: Interested persons may submit comments on or before June 21, 
2022.

ADDRESSES: Submit comments to the Office of Information and Regulatory 
Affairs of the Office of Management and Budget, Attention: Desk Officer 
for the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Washington, DC 20503, Fax: 
(202) 395-3047, Email: [email protected]. Please also submit 
comments to FHFA, identified by ``Proposed Collection; Comment Request: 
`American Survey of Mortgage Borrowers, (No. 2022-N-5)' '' by any of 
the following methods:
     Agency Website: 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 the agency.
     Mail/Hand Delivery: Federal Housing Finance Agency, 400 
Seventh Street SW, Washington, DC 20219, ATTENTION: Proposed 
Collection; Comment Request: ``American Survey of Mortgage Borrowers, 
(No. 2022-N-5).'' Please note that all mail sent to FHFA via U.S. Mail 
is routed through a national irradiation facility, a process that may 
delay delivery by approximately two weeks. For any time-sensitive 
correspondence, please plan accordingly.
    We will post all public comments we receive without change, 
including any

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personal information you provide, such as your name and address, email 
address, and telephone number, on the FHFA website at http://www.fhfa.gov. In addition, copies of all comments received will be 
available for examination by the public through the electronic comment 
docket for this PRA Notice also located on the FHFA website.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Saty Patrabansh, Manager, National 
Mortgage Database Program, [email protected], (202) 649-3213; or 
Angela Supervielle, Counsel, [email protected], (202) 649-
3973, (these are not toll-free numbers), Federal Housing Finance 
Agency, 400 Seventh Street SW, Washington, DC 20219. For TTY/TRS users 
with hearing and speech disabilities, dial 711 and ask to be connected 
to any of the contact numbers above.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

A. Background

    The American Survey of Mortgage Borrowers (ASMB) is a component of 
the ``National Mortgage Database'' (NMDB[supreg]) Program, which is a 
joint effort of FHFA and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau 
(CFPB) (jointly, ``the agencies''). The NMDB Program is designed to 
satisfy the Congressionally-mandated requirements of section 1324(c) of 
the Federal Housing Enterprises Financial Safety and Soundness Act.\1\ 
Section 1324(c) requires that FHFA conduct a monthly survey to collect 
data on the characteristics of individual prime and subprime mortgages, 
and on the borrowers and properties associated with those mortgages, in 
order to enable it to prepare a detailed annual report on the mortgage 
market activities of the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie 
Mae) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) for 
review by the appropriate Congressional oversight committees. Section 
1324(c) also authorizes and requires FHFA to compile a database of 
otherwise unavailable residential mortgage market information and to 
make that information available to the public in a timely fashion.
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    \1\ 12 U.S.C. 4544(c).
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    As a means of fulfilling those and other statutory requirements, as 
well as to support policymaking and research regarding the residential 
mortgage markets, FHFA and CFPB jointly established the NMDB Program in 
2012. The Program is designed to provide comprehensive information 
about the U.S. mortgage market and has three primary components: (1) 
The NMDB; (2) the quarterly National Survey of Mortgage Originations 
(NSMO); and (3) the ASMB.
    The NMDB is a de-identified loan-level database of closed-end 
first-lien residential mortgage loans that is representative of the 
market as a whole, contains detailed loan-level information on the 
terms and performance of the mortgages and the characteristics of the 
associated borrowers and properties, is continually updated, has an 
historical component dating back to 1998, and provides a sampling frame 
for surveys to collect additional information. The core data in the 
NMDB are drawn from a random 1-in-20 sample of all closed-end first-
lien mortgages outstanding at any time between January 1998 and the 
present in the files of Experian, one of the three national credit 
repositories, with a random sample of mortgages newly reported to 
Experian added each quarter.
    The NMDB draws additional information on mortgages in the NMDB 
datasets from other existing sources, including Home Mortgage 
Disclosure Act (HMDA) data that are maintained by the Federal Financial 
Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC), property valuation models, 
and administrative data files maintained by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac 
and by federal agencies. FHFA also obtains data from the two surveys 
conducted as part of the program--the NSMO and the ASMB.
    The NSMO is a quarterly survey that provides critical and timely 
information on newly-originated mortgages and associated borrowers that 
are not available from other sources, including: The range of 
nontraditional and subprime mortgage products being offered, the 
methods by which these mortgages are being marketed, and the 
characteristics of borrowers for these types of loans.\2\
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    \2\ OMB has cleared the NSMO under the PRA and assigned it 
control no. 2590-0012, which expires on June 30, 2023.
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    While the NSMO provides information on newly-originated mortgages, 
the ASMB focuses on borrowers' experience with maintaining their 
existing mortgages. This includes their experience maintaining 
mortgages under financial stress, their experience in soliciting 
financial assistance, their success in accessing federally sponsored 
programs designed to assist them, and, where applicable, any challenges 
they may have had in terminating a mortgage loan. The ASMB is designed 
to collect information necessary to allow empirical analysis of two 
questions of vital importance to residential mortgage market 
policymakers and stakeholders: (1) What factors explain or predict 
which borrowers will become delinquent on their mortgages; and (2) once 
a borrower becomes delinquent, what factors explain or predict whether 
the borrower will (a) become current on the loan, (b) decide they 
cannot afford the mortgage and sell the property or modify the 
mortgage, or (c) remain delinquent and enter into foreclosure.
    From 2016 through 2018, the ASMB questionnaire was sent once 
annually to a stratified random sample of 10,000 borrowers with 
mortgages in the NMDB. FHFA did not undertake the ASMB during 2019, but 
sent the survey again in the fall of 2020 with a specific focus on the 
experiences of borrowers during the COVID-19 pandemic using a 
stratified random sample of 10,000 borrowers. The 2020 survey was 
substantially similar to the 2018 survey, except it included a number 
of questions specifically relating to the COVID-19 pandemic and its 
effects. In 2020, the ASMB had a 21 percent overall response rate, 
which yielded 2,100 survey responses. The 2022 survey is similar to the 
2020 survey in its focus on how the pandemic impacted borrowers and 
extends the focus to the experiences of those who used forbearance.
    Seven completely new questions have been added regarding expanded 
mortgage payment forbearance options and borrowers' overall financial 
health. Additionally, four questions were added which were not in the 
2020 ASMB, but were in either the 2018 ASMB or the current NSMO 
questionnaire. The remaining questions existed in the 2020 
questionnaire, although some have been revised to address issues 
leaving forbearance rather than issues entering it. Because of the 
elimination of several questions, as well as the combination of some 
other questions, the total number of questions has decreased from 92 on 
the 2020 survey questionnaire to 86 on the 2022 questionnaire.
    Each of the 86 questions on the 2022 ASMB survey questionnaire is 
designed to elicit one or more of five different categories of 
information that are not available in the administrative data and that 
are needed either to properly analyze the issues described above or 
information is needed to validate the survey responses. These 
categories are: (1) Information needed to validate that the survey 
reached the correct borrower and that the borrower is providing answers 
about the correct loan; (2) information about the mortgage loan that 
does not exist in sufficient detail in the administrative data; (3) 
information about the borrower's economic

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circumstances that does not exist, or exists in insufficient detail, in 
the administrative data; (4) information about the borrower's attitudes 
regarding their mortgage, property, interactions with lenders and 
servicers, and life circumstances; and (5) information needed to 
determine the ultimate outcome of the borrower's forbearance or 
delinquency and the interim steps that led to that outcome.

B. Need for and Use of the Information Collection

    FHFA views the NMDB Program as a whole, including the ASMB, as the 
monthly ``survey'' required by section 1324(c) of the Safety and 
Soundness Act. Core inputs to the NMDB, such as a regular refresh of 
the credit repository data, occur monthly, though the actual surveys 
conducted under the NMDB Program do not. The information collected 
through the ASMB is used, in combination with information obtained from 
existing sources in the NMDB, to assist FHFA in understanding how the 
performance of existing mortgages is influencing the residential 
mortgage market, what borrower groups are discussing with their 
servicers when they are under financial stress, and consumers' opinions 
of federally-sponsored programs designed to assist them. This 
important, but otherwise unavailable, information assists FHFA in the 
supervision of its regulated entities (Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the 
Federal Home Loan Banks) and in the development and implementation of 
appropriate and effective policies and programs. The information may 
also be used for research and analysis by CFPB and other federal 
agencies that have regulatory and supervisory responsibilities and 
mandates related to mortgage markets and to provide a resource for 
research and analysis by academics and other interested parties outside 
of the government.
    As discussed above, the agencies have added to the 2022 ASMB survey 
questionnaire several questions relating to the effect of the COVID-19 
pandemic on home mortgage borrowers. The CARES Act of 2020 \3\ allowed 
a forbearance for mortgage borrowers impacted by the pandemic so they 
could pause or delay their mortgage payments. FHFA and CFPB are 
actively engaged in monitoring the outcomes of these borrowers and the 
effects of this policy on the residential mortgage market. As borrowers 
exit their forbearance periods, it is critical for both agencies to 
have timely access to this information to assist in evidenced-based 
policymaking in these areas.
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    \3\ Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, Public 
Law 116-136 (2020).
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    FHFA is also seeking OMB approval to continue to conduct cognitive 
pre-testing of the survey materials. The Agency uses information 
collected through that process to assist in drafting and modifying the 
survey questions and instructions, as well as the related 
communications, to read in the way that will be most readily understood 
by the survey respondents and that will be most likely to elicit usable 
responses. Such information is also used to help the Agency decide on 
how best to organize and format the survey questionnaires.

C. Burden Estimate

    This information collection comprises two components: (1) The ASMB 
survey; and (2) the pre-testing of the survey questionnaire and related 
materials through the use of cognitive testing. FHFA conducted the 
survey annually from 2016 through 2018, but did not conduct the survey 
in 2019 nor 2021. FHFA assumes that it will conduct the survey once 
annually over the next three years and that it will conduct two rounds 
of pre-testing on each year of survey materials.
    FHFA has analyzed the total hour burden on members of the public 
associated with conducting the survey (4,200 hours) and with pre-
testing the survey materials (24 hours) and estimates the total annual 
hour burden imposed on the public by this information collection to be 
4,224 hours. The estimate for each phase of the collection was 
calculated as follows:

I. Conducting the Survey

    FHFA estimates that the ASMB questionnaire will be sent to 10,000 
recipients each time it is conducted. Although it expects that only 
about 2,100 of those surveys will be returned, FHFA has calculated the 
burden estimates below as if all of the surveys will be returned. Based 
on the reported experience of respondents to earlier ASMB 
questionnaires, FHFA estimates that it will take each respondent 25 
minutes to complete each survey, including the gathering of necessary 
materials to respond to the questions. This results in a total annual 
burden estimate of 4,200 hours for the survey phase of this collection 
(1 survey per year x 10,000 respondents per survey x 25 minutes per 
respondent = 4,200 hours).

II. Pre-Testing the Materials

    FHFA estimates that it will sponsor 2 rounds of 12 cognitive 
interviews prior to conducting each annual survey for a total of 24 
cognitive interview participants. It estimates the participation time 
for each cognitive interview participant to be one hour, resulting in a 
total annual burden estimate of 24 hours for the pre-testing phase of 
the collection.

D. Comment Request

    In accordance with the requirements of 5 CFR 1320.8(d), FHFA 
published an initial notice and request for public comments regarding 
this information collection in the Federal Register on December 28, 
2021.\4\ The 60-day comment period closed on February 28, 2022. FHFA 
received no comments.
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    \4\ See 86 FR 73770 (Dec. 28, 2021).
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    FHFA requests written comments on the following: (1) Whether the 
collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of 
FHFA functions, including whether the information has practical 
utility; (2) the accuracy of FHFA's estimates of the burdens of the 
collection of information; (3) ways to enhance the quality, utility, 
and clarity of the information collected; and (4) ways to minimize the 
burden of the collection of information on respondents, including 
through the use of automated collection techniques or other forms of 
information technology.

Shawn Bucholtz,
Chief Data Officer, Federal Housing Finance Agency.
BILLING CODE 8070-01-P

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[FR Doc. 2022-10772 Filed 5-18-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8070-01-C