News release: “The Federal Trade Commission staff has submitted comments to the Federal Reserve Board recommending ways the Board could strengthen the rules under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, which requires some mortgage lenders to collect and report loan data that the government uses to analyze whether they are complying with fair lending laws. In response to a request for comments by the Federal Reserve Board, the FTC staff outlined the FTC’s enforcement of fair lending laws and recommended changes to the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act’s Regulation C. The FTC staff recommended that the Board expand the number of mortgage lenders required to report loan data by modifying the criteria for determining which ones are required to report. According to FTC staff, these changes would not be overly burdensome to lenders and would provide regulators with better data to enforce fair lending laws. FTC staff also suggested that the Board require lenders to report on additional types of loans, such as reverse mortgages and home equity lines of credit, and to report additional data fields for all reported loans. In addition, the FTC staff recommended that the Board make the mortgage data available to the public and useful to researchers while still protecting mortgage applicants’ privacy.”