Federal Reserve to consider changes to HMDA

The Federal Reserve Board has announced that it will hold four public hearings, beginning in July, on potential revisions to Regulation C, which implements the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA). The act requires mortgage lenders to provide detailed annual reports of their mortgage lending activity to regulators and the public. Consumers, community and consumer organizations, mortgage lenders, and other interested parties will be invited to participate in the hearings. The hearings will serve three objectives: ►The Board will gather information to evaluate whether the 2002 revisions to Regulation C, which required lenders to report mortgage pricing data, helped provide useful and accurate information about the mortgage market. ►The hearings will provide information that will help the Board assess the need for additional data and other improvements. ►The hearings will help identify emerging issues in the mortgage market that may warrant additional research. The hearings will take place at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta on July 15, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco on August 5, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago on Sept. 16, and the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 24. All hearings will include panel discussions by invited speakers. Other interested parties may deliver oral statements of five minutes or less during an "open-mike" period. Written statements of any length may be submitted for the record. For more information, visit www.federalreserve.gov.