The National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) recently submitted a letter to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to strongly support maintaining the current level of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data collection because reduced HMDA reporting would significantly impair fair lending enforcement.
53 state and local NCRC member organizations signed on to NCRC’s letter. The letter notes that for over five decades, Congress has repeatedly and deliberately affirmed and expanded HMDA and that the CFPB and industry leaders previously agreed that compliance costs are modest.
HMDA data enables regulators, researchers, community organizations and the public to identify disparities in lending outcomes across racial, ethnic and income groups. Without this data, discriminatory lending patterns would be significantly more difficult to detect and address.
“HMDA is one of the most important tools we have for understanding whether lenders are serving communities fairly,” said Jason Richardson, NCRC’s senior director of research and letter author. “Weakening HMDA would do little for lenders but a lot to hide discrimination.”
To read NCRC’s full letter, please visit this link.
Members who signed on:
Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund
ANHD
Arkansas Community Organizations
Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership
Beneficial State Foundation
Building Neighborhoods Together, Inc.
CASA of Oregon
CDFI Friendly South Bend
Ceiba
Center for Responsible Lending
Committee for Better Banks
Community Investment Alliance of Florida
Consumer Action
Consumer Federation of America
Empire Justice Center
Fair Finance Watch
Fair Housing Center for Rights & Research
Fair Housing Center of Central Indiana
Fair Housing Center of West Michigan
Fair Housing Rights Center in SEPA
GenesisHOPE
Georgia Advancing Communities Together, Inc.
Harlingen Community Development Corporation
Hip Hop Caucus
Housing Action Illinois
Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania
Housing Education and Economic Development (HEED)
Housing Opportunities Made Equal of Greater Cincinnati
Housing Oregon
Human Relations Council
JV Shaw Consulting
Living Cities
Long Island Housing Services, Inc.
Massachusetts Affordable Homeownership Alliance
Metro Milwaukee Fair Housing Council
New Jersey Citizen Action
Opportunity Finance Network
Oregon Consumer League
Partners for Rural Transformation
Philadelphia Association of Community Development Corporations
Pittsburgh Community Reinvestment Group (PCRG)
Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada
Prosperity Indiana
Public Good Law Center
Rise Economy
The Greenlining Institute
The Sacramento Environmental Justice Coalition
Tolson Center, Inc
Universal Housing Solutions CDC
University of Toronto
Urban Coalition of Appraisal Professionals
Urban Economic Development Association of Wisconsin, Inc.
Woodstock Institute
