Summary: Proposed rule — temporary increase in home equity loan reporting thresholds (July, 2017)

Proposed Rule Summary: Temporary Increase in Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (Regulation C) Thresholds for Open-End Lines of Credit

CFPB 12 CFR Part 1003
Home Mortgage Disclosure (Regulation C) Temporary Increase in Institutional and Transactional Coverage Thresholds for Open-End Lines of Credit

Prepared by the NASCUS Legislative and Regulatory Affairs Department
July 2017

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is proposing amendments to Regulation C that would, for a period of two years, increase the threshold for collecting and reporting data with respect to open-end lines of credit so that financial institutions originating fewer than 500 open-end lines of credit in either of the preceding two years would not be required to begin collecting/reporting data until January 1, 2020.

The proposed rule can be found here.  Comments must be received by the CFPB by July 31, 2017.

Summary

In October 2015, the Bureau published a HMDA final rule that required, among other things, collection and reporting of data with regard to open-end, dwelling-secured lines of credit.  The final rule provided an exemption from data collection/reporting for institutions that originated less than 25 closed end mortgage loans or less than 100 open-end lines of credit in each of the two preceding calendar years.

Since that time, the Bureau has engaged in industry outreach regarding the final rule and has been advised that the current open-end line of credit transactional threshold (less than 100 originated) is too low.  As a result, the Bureau is now proposing to increase the exemption threshold for two years—calendar years 2018 and 2019.  Under the proposed rule, institutions that originate fewer than 500 open-end lines of credit in either of the two preceding calendar years would not be required to collect and report data for a temporary, two year period.  The open-end line of credit reporting threshold will return to the previous standard effective January 1, 2020.

Comments Requested

The CFPB seeks comment on the following:

• Whether or not it should temporarily increase the open-end transactional coverage threshold? And, if so, whether to raise the threshold to 500 or to a larger or smaller number?

• Whether, if it elects to increase the open-end transactional coverage threshold, it should do so for a period of two years or a longer/shorter period of time?