Prepare for changes in data collection rules 2

by: Edward Kramer, EVP, Wolters Kluwer Financial Services

In part I of this series, the new data fields that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFBP) seeks to collect for more HMDA reporting transparency and timeliness and concerns about potential misinterpretation of newly collected data was addressed.

To wrap-up, we will consider the known and unknown factors related to this regulatory change and conclude with a list of key tips you can use to prepare your credit union for these pending changes.

Imminent Compliance and Technology Challenges Are Clear

Although most industry observers expect issuance of the final regulation sometime in 2015, we don’t yet know which specific data fields will be included, nor the amount of time institutions will have to prepare before the requirements go into effect. We also do not know if or how much of any additional data collected will be made public by the regulators.

Protecting the privacy of personally identifiable financial information should be a priority. The inclusion of items such as credit scores, borrower age, and other personal data may raise legitimate privacy concerns, particularly if it becomes possible to identify a specific consumer by combining the new data with other publicly available data.

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