Starky, did you send it electronically or did you send a hard copy?

Could someone do a survey to see how many banks received a request from ACORN?

You can if you register.

I think I'd want to send these certified mail. I'd like to be sure that they receive it within the time frame, for both their sake and mine

As to the response of the larger banks....sheesh if you are asked for the information, why start up a fuss by not complying? You just leave yourself open to this sort of article. That being said, it's also wrong for them to complain when the banks complied as required by the reg. Oh well Live and learn.

I'm reviving this thread because I just received a request from ACORN for a copy of our HMDA LAR, in the "same electronic file format that was submitted to (the bank's) federal regulatory agency". Of course, I won't do that; however, do we have to give it to them in an electronic format? We are approx. $250 million and don't use CRA Wiz or any other program at this time. Should I go out of my way to produce an electronic version or can I just send paper?

If you don't have it in e-form you certainly don't have to make it that way for them. If you do, it is often easier on everyone. But you are right to be cautious in that they cannot have the full data. They get the sanitized version and you are free to give them it on paper if you don't want to or can't do this in a PC program.

Let me throw my 2 cents worth in here... my institution also received a letter from ACORN. My advice to the powers that be was to give them no more than we are required. In my former life doing actual civil litigation I learned that when your adversary asks for discovery items you NEVER give them more than the bare minimum and ONLY give them exactly what they ask for. So I'm telling ACORN they can pay for the cost of copying and they will receive a paper copy of the public file.

As a consultant to many community banks I have been advised by most of them that they have received requests from ACORN. I am somewhat perplexed as to why ACORN is doing this at this time in light of the fact that the data will be available in "raw" format very soon (the Fed advised me earlier this week that the release of the HMDA LAR raw data will be delayed until September). Once the data is released in raw format any organization with relational database experts and with knowledge of banking can develop a comprehensive market analysis anywhere in the US. My company routinely does this every year and sells the market reports to bankers and non-bankers alike. Any reporting lender can be compared to the market and any, or all other, reporting lenders. Not only can market rank and market share analysis easily be done, but Fair Lending comparisons can be made - and all this is extracted from the HMDA LAR raw data. So it is puzzling why ACORN is making thousands of requests at this time. Maybe they just can't wait to see the new rate spread information (if you want to read about the rate spread data that already has been collected independently and analyzed visit Inner City Press' web site). But, since your data will be electronically available in the next 6 weeks or so, I don't see any problem with giving them the data electronically now unless you have some performance element that would make you look bad. And, if you don't know what your data says about your performance, you should.

One difference between what they are asking for and what they'll get is confidential data. They seem to want the LAR with more individual LAR data data than they'll get in the aggregate analysis. Part of me worries that they'll scream privacy violation if they get it.

I didn't realize the FFIEC program does have an export feature for the public LAR. I used 3rd party programs. This is good to know.

Litig8tr, the only thing I'd say about your approach is that I would not charge the entity if I didn't routinely charge other requests for the data. While I'm with the "give what you're required" theory, I also try to do so with some level of grace as to not end up on folks bad list

The latest versions of HMDA RELIEF also have the Public LAR option for electronic transmission of Year 2004 data without requiring any FFIEC software export.

In addition, we added a feature to limit full reports (including the confidential information) of LAR records within a State to only those records under the regulator's (i.e. attorney general, AKA Elliott Spitzer) jurisdiction thus supporting Andy's opinion that you only give the requestor exactly what they are legally entitled to.

Leonard Ryan
President
QuestSoft