Congressional Democrats Urge CFPB to Continue Gathering Mortgage Data

Senator Sherrod Brown, Ranking Member of the Senate Banking Committee, sent a letter to Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Kathy Kraninger urging her and the CFPB to continue collecting Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HDMA) data, which the letter says is “critical to monitor market trends, credit access, and discrimination in our housing market.”

The CFPB issued a final rule earlier this month that allowed banks and credit unions issuing few mortgages a reprieve from having to collect and report HMDA data. The regulatory relief was extended until January 1, 2022. 

In addition, the CFPB is soliciting comments on certain changes to the HMDA regime that many Congressional Democrats may end up opposing. The congressional letter, in response to these CFPB actions, was signed by Senator Brown, along with seven other Democrats, including Senators Elizabeth Warren and Jack Reed. 

In the letter, the Senators expressed the importance of HMDA data, which is used to determine whether “financial institutions are serving the housing needs of their communities; assisting in distributing public-sector investment; and identifying possible discriminatory lending and enforcing andti-discrimination laws.” The Senators expressed concern “that the CFPB announced that it would reopen the 2015 HMDA rule before the new data points had even been collected.”

The CFPB has yet to respond, but it is probably safe to say that this fight is far from over.