Circular Letters

Circular Letter 5567

June 25, 2002

To: All Member Banks and Others Concerned in the Third Federal Reserve District

Attention: Chief Executive Officers and Compliance Officers

Subject: REGULATION C - FINAL AMENDMENTS

Summary:

On June 21, 2002, the Federal Reserve Board published final amendments to its Regulation C, which implements the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act. The amendments:

Set the thresholds for determining the loans for which financial institutions must report loan-pricing data, as required under a final rule approved by the Board on January 23, 2002. Institutions will report the rate spread between the annual percentage rate on a loan and the yield on comparable Treasury securities if the spread equals or exceeds 3 percentage points for first-lien loans and 5 percentage points for subordinate-lien loans.
Require lenders to report the lien status of applications and originated loans.
Require lenders to ask applicants their ethnicity, race, and sex in applications taken by telephone.

Effective Date: Compliance with the amendments relating to thresholds and lien status is mandatory on January 1, 2004. The amendment requiring lenders to ask telephone applicants for monitoring information is effective for applications taken beginning January 1, 2003.

Additional Information: A copy of the final rule (223 KB, 22 pages) and supplementary information (89 KB, 4 pages), including the new loan/application register and loan/application register code sheet, are attached. For additional information, contact the Regulations Assistance Unit at this Reserve Bank at (215) 574-6568 or John C. Wood, Counsel, Kathleen C. Ryan, Senior Attorney, or Dan S. Sokolov, Attorney, Division of Consumer and Community Affairs, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Washington, D.C., at (202) 452-3667 or 452-2412.