For immediate release

The Federal Reserve Board today issued an amendment to its Home Mortgage Disclosure regulation, Regulation C, making final an interim rule that raised the exemption level for small institutions. The interim rule was adopted last January, raising the exemption threshold from $10 million to $28 million in assets. Institutions with assets totaling $28 million or less are not required to collect Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data in 1997. The final rule also establishes an alternative way for covered institutions to provide disclosure statements in metropolitan areas where they have branch offices, which they may begin using immediately. Disclosure statements for individual institutions are prepared by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council. Within three business days of receiving the statement from the Council, an institution must make a complete copy of its disclosure statement available to the public, at its home office. For branch offices located in other metropolitan areas, the institution will now have the option of posting a notice informing the public that disclosures will be provided upon written request and indicating the address for sending requests. Previously, the rule required that, within ten calendar days of receipt from the Council, disclosures for these branch offices be available for public inspection at one office in each metropolitan area. Individual disclosure statements pertaining to 1996 mortgage lending activity will likely be sent to reporting institutions starting in early June. Institutions may begin using the new branch disclosure approach immediately, both for the 1996 statements and for prior years' data. Both the branch disclosure rule and the change in the asset threshold carry out amendments to the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act that were signed into law in September 1996. The Board's notice is attached.

Summary only | Summary and final rule (34 KB PDF)

1997 Banking and consumer regulatory policy