CPFB Provides Key to Using HMDA Data

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced new tools yesterday that will help consumers further explore the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data that was released by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC).  The 2012 HMDA data includes information on loan originations, loan declinations, mortgage preapprovals and loan sales and purchases from 7,400 financial institutions covered by HMDA requirements.  As close to 19 million mortgage-related actions are covered in the database, tools to explore and manage it are probably a necessity.   

In announcing the tools CFPB said they will "help maximize the impact of this tremendous public dataset by providing a user-friendly tool to enable consumers to explore mortgage application and loan data at a local level."

The data, CFPB said, can help show whether lenders are serving the housing needs of their communities and can give public officials information to help them make decisions and policies.  It can also illuminate lending patterns that could be discriminatory.

The tools allow the users to see nationwide summaries or use interactive features to isolate data for any metropolitan area.  The map below, showing loan volume changes in 2012, is an example of information that can generated with the tool. 

The new tools are available on the CFPB website.