Let’s recap what has happened in 2022 on three different fronts: HMDA, fair lending, and CRA (the Community Reinvestment Act). I count eight important developments. These are listed in no particular order below:
1. In 2022, the FFIEC released new census tract boundaries, labels, and demographics for use in the analysis of 2022 lending data.
Relative to the census data that is used to analyze 2021 lending data, the overall number of census tracts in the 50 states, plus Washington DC and Puerto Rico, increased by 11,394, from 74,001 to 85,395. The share of those tracts which are MMTs (majority-minority census tracts) increased by 4.0 percent from 31.0% to 35.0%, while the share of tracts that are low or moderate income decreased by 1.4 percent from 30.4% to 29.0%.
2. A new threshold for reporting open-end transactions in HMDA went into effect in January 2022. More institutions are reporting open-end transactions for 2022 than in 2021. See this Final Rule.
3. A new threshold for reporting closed-end transactions in HMDA will go into effect in January 2023.
More institutions will be reporting closed-end transactions for 2023 than in 2022. See this technical amendment.
4. The 2021 HMDA Snapshot data were released in June 2021. Generally, low-interest rates led to a boom in refinancings and home purchase lending. The increase in interest rates that followed in 2022 is believed to be producing a precipitous drop in refinancing activity which would be apparent when the 2022 data are released in 2023.
5. The Combatting Redlining Initiative, announced by the DOJ, CFPB, and OCC in 2021, led to the noteworthy resolution of two redlining enforcement cases in 2022. One settlement involved a bank operating in the Newark, New Jersey, metro area, while another focused on the Philadelphia metro area. The latter was the first-ever consent order in which the government had alleged that a non-depository mortgage lender had been redlining.
6. In January 2022, the comment period closed for the CFPB’s Proposed Rule on implementation of Dodd-Frank Section 1071, which covers small business lending data collection. The CFPB rulemaking agenda indicates that a Final Rule on this topic will be issued by March 2023.
7. In June 2022, the Federal Reserve issued a Proposed Rule regarding changes to the rules that implement the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA).
The comment period closed in August 2022. The timing of the forthcoming Final Rule and the subsequent implementation of the new rules is unclear.
8. HMDA Filing Instruction Guide (FIG) updates The most recent revision to the 2023 FIG came in September 2022.
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