Change applies to mortgages purchased by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Nov. 10 published a final rule that establishes procedures for determining whether certain types of loan- level data on mortgages purchased by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two government sponsored enterprises, can be released to the public. The new rule could have the effect of making more GSE data available to the public, thereby facilitating research on affordable lending and housing markets.

The rule establishes new procedures to allow for additional circumstances under which data currently classified as proprietary could be reclassified as nonproprietary, according to a HUD news release. The new procedures allow for the possible public release of GSE mortgage data (both at the loan level and in aggregate) that HUD determines, by regulation or order, to reclassify from proprietary to nonproprietary status for prospective release. In these instances, the regulation or order also may provide for the release of the corresponding data for all preceding years as well.

Another new provision will permit the Department to reconsider the proprietary status of data that has aged at least five years and to reclassify such data to nonproprietary status on a case-by-case basis if additional analysis, as required by HUD’s current regulations, supports this reclassification.

The new rule does not alter HUD’s duty under its existing regulations to evaluate the implications of releasing any loan-level mortgage data, including the probable impact on consumer and business privacy issues, before determining the proprietary status of the data.

HUD’s new final rule is consistent with a congressional mandate under the Federal Housing Enterprises Financial Safety and Soundness Act of 1992 that HUD make available, in forms useful to the public, data submitted by the government-sponsored enterprises relating to their mortgage purchases to fill the “information vacuum” that Congress determined existed prior to enactment of the mandate.

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