I understand the difference. I was trying to respond to MS' query about the public file.

I always encourage electronic public files and had one myself as far back as the late 1990s. It saves a ton of money and time (which is money) and eliminates the possibility of a branch having an out of date file not matter how hard you try to avoid that problem.

Just keep one full public file and you are done. Everything is available immediately so you meet all requirements. I did have an auditor once tell a client they were not in compliance because the rule said for the requested info to be available "within x days" - so I replied "How can 'now' not be within x days?". End of that critique.

It is a much more efficient method.

I was responding to your "status quo" comment. That would be more work than you have to do.

Hopefully, all those special interest groups that request it will just go to the website and get it once they know they are out there. I see requests going away unless you just get a customer who wants to know. I will have to say, I've NEVER had a customer request our HMDA LAR.

I agree, Walden. The groups and large banks that use that data and make the annual requests know the process is changing. And if they do not, they will find out quickly.

So let me ask about the "electronic" option. Clearly, the CFPB gives you the option of providing the notice to the public in either paper or electronic format. That is stated in the Official Interpretation comment 5(c)-1. What's not so clear, though, is1005.5(c)(1) requires this notice to be "written". Given that, would that mean that in order to provide the notice electronically to a consumer, the consumer is first going to have to opt-in through the bank's E-SIGN demonstrable consent process?

I am getting confused about what everyone is thinking. Right now we have a HMDA notice (poster).

Current language of notice/poster:

"Notice of availability.

A financial institution shall post a general notice about the availability of its HMDA data in the lobby of its home office and of each branch office located in an MSA and Metropolitan Division. An institution shall provide promptly upon request the location of the institution's offices where the statement is available for inspection and copying, or it may include the location in the lobby notice.

OFFICIAL INTERPRETATION TO 5(e)

5(e) Notice of availability.

Poster—suggested text.

An institution may use any text that meets the requirements of the regulation. Some of the Federal agencies that receive HMDA data provide HMDA posters that an institution can use to inform the public of the availability of its HMDA data, or the institution may create its own posters. If an institution prints its own, the following language is suggested but is not required:

Home Mortgage Disclosure Act Notice

The HMDA data about our residential mortgage lending are available for review. The data show geographic distribution of loans and applications; ethnicity, race, sex, and income of applicants and borrowers; and information about loan approvals and denials. Inquire at this office regarding the locations where HMDA data may be inspected.

Additional language for institutions making the disclosure statement available on request. An institution that posts a notice informing the public of the address to which a request should be sent could include the following sentence, for example, in its general notice: “To receive a copy of these data send a written request to [address]."

Under the revised rule we will have a new notice/poster hanging in branches, etc.:

Posted notice of availability of data.

A financial institution shall post a general notice about the availability of its HMDA data in the lobby of its home office and of each branch office physically located in each MSA and each MD. This notice must clearly convey that the institution's HMDA data is available on the Bureau's Web site at www.consumerfinance.gov/hmda.

OFFICIAL INTERPRETATION TO 5(e)

5(e) Posted Notice of Availability of Data

POSTED NOTICE—SUGGESTED TEXT.

A financial institution may post any text that meets the requirements of § 1003.5(e). The Bureau or other appropriate Federal agency for a financial institution may provide a notice that the institution can post to inform the public of the availability of its HMDA data, or an institution may create its own notice. The following language is suggested but is not required:

Home Mortgage Disclosure Act Notice

The HMDA data about our residential mortgage lending are available online for review. The data show geographic distribution of loans and applications; ethnicity, race, sex, age, and income of applicants and borrowers; and information about loan approvals and denials. HMDA data for many other financial institutions are also available online. For more information, visit the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's Web site (www.consumerfinance.gov/hmda)."

When someone comes in asking for a LAR created under the new rule, you should be giving them a document that tells them to go to the CFPB website to see the LAR and HMDA disclosure statement.

Where are people envisioning giving a walk in person an electronic notice? The comment in the discussion section of the rule is talking about someone who comes in to a branch. You have your poster on the wall (old and new rule). You are not giving them the same language as the poster, you just have to give them something that says "Get our HMDA data at this website:xxxxx".

Am I totally misunderstanding what people are confused about? The poster is still required but with new language. What to give someone who asks is changings....and you do not give them the language of the poster. Also, it is "suggested language" not required language.

And don't forget that there is a transition period where you need an old poster for prior data and a new poster for data that will be available on the CFPB website. Ultimately as time passes, all will be on the CFPB website.

KB.....how long will the overlap be...IOW, how long will we need both an old and new poster?

Well, the current rule says:

Availability of data.
A financial institution shall make its modified register available to the public for a period of three years and its disclosure statement available for a period of five years.

So, unless the CFPB goes back and makes everything available on its website (which was not the scenario when I asked about this) you will have years of data still subject to disclosure under old rules. Two years of the LAR and 4 of the disclosure statement.

You CAN modify the poster and say something like "the LAR and disclosure statement for years prior to 2018 are available here. the LAR and disclosure for 2018 and beyond are available at "www.cfpb.gov" (whatever part of the site the info will be at.

Ultimately, all 3 years of the LAR and all 5 years of the disclosure statement will be online.

If they make it all available online day one, great, no transition.

Thanks.

KB, the sample WK gives can be seen at the following link. the tear-off is an exact duplicate of the notice and includes the location to get the goods:

http://www.wolterskluwerfs.com/CorporateCampaignMenu.aspx?pageid=6442455231&id=10737428078

Well, I wouldn't use it! You do not have to "give out the notice".

It is not even required language for the notice itself.

I'm a bit confused now......if someone walked up in March 2018, looks at our poster, and says "i want your HMDA data"....then we DO have to produce a page with the HMDA notice information on it....correct?

Or maybe i should say March 2019....

Unless they make the 2017 data available electronically, it is under the current rule.

Ok....let me rephrase....someone walks in the bank in March 2022, sees our poster and says they want our HMDA data for 2021....we have to give them a piece of paper with the HMDA notice information on it...right? (I shouldn't have used 2018 in my example.)

It just has to tell them how to obtain the information, tell them the website. But yes, you have to give them something since they made the effort to come in, they need to walk away with "something" in their hands.

Ok...thanks.

I was under the assumption that the 2017 will be available at the CFPB website since we are submitting the data to them.

Except the 2017 HMDA rule and disclosure re 2017 data was not changed. It changes for 2018 data.

I certainly didn't catch this in the new rules. Thanks for the clarification.

The "risk taker" side of me says not to worry about having a "take-one" notice. If you've never had a customer ask for your data (which most banks will tell you), you don't need to have a notice to give. If you're conservative, have 1 or 2 notices available to carry out of the lobby, but it will probably only be something you show examiners - IF they figure this out.

Per the small entity guide:

Page 90 section 6.3.1 Disclosure Statement, the second sentence says "The changes apply to data collected in 2017 and later years."

Page 90 section 6.3.2. Modified LAR, the second sentence also reads "The new requirements apply to data collected in 2017 and later years."

So, my assumption is that when we post the notice 1/1/18 and someone comes in on May 1st asking for our data we will be able to refer them to the CFPB website and our data will be there.

Did I miss something?

I agree bOaty. I don't think you need two lobby posters. The new rules trump the old rules. In the Oct 2015 final rule, there were requirements for only 2017 and other requirements for 2018. The lobby notice requirements in 1003.5 don't say we need to continue to inform customers about the old data. Yes, we need to retain things for 3 & 5 years and make them available, if requested, but I don't believe you need to keep up the previous lobby notices.

It looks like it would be safe to say then, that non-HMDA reporting banks do not need a notice at all, correct?

We have the pre-2015 rule notice in our lobbies only because we have filed HMDA data for banks we have acquired for loans/applications for the acquired bank for the year of the acquisition up to legal close. The last filing we had to do was for 2013 data so it sounds like we can simply remove the current notice at the end of this year and be done with it.