WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) - The first comprehensive source of detailed mortgage loan information will be in a database formed by the partnering of the Federal Housing Finance Agency and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Primarily the database will be used to support the agencies' policymaking and research efforts. This will also help regulators to better understand emerging mortgage and housing market trends, the CFPB said.
Known as the National Mortgage Database, this new record will include information spanning the life of a mortgage loan, including loan-level data about the mortgage such as the borrower's financial and credit profile, the mortgage product and terms, the property purchases or refinanced and the ongoing payment history.
Data will be updated on a monthly basis and will track back to 1998. This will also meet an FHFA requirement under the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 by conducting monthly mortgage market surveys.
"This partnership between FHFA and CFPB will create a unique resource that benefits the government and public as we seek to answer important questions about how the housing finance market is evolving and changing," FHFA Acting Director Edward J. DeMarco said. "This collaborative effort is a great way to pool expertise and leverage resources for the benefit of regulators and the public."
The database will be built by matching nationwide samplings of credit bureau files on borrower's mortgages and payment histories, property valuation models, and other data files to create a comprehensive picture for each mortgage.
No personal identity information will be kept in the database.
The creation of the National Mortgage Database will allow comprehensive data to be available on a complete, national scale, the CFPB said. Even though the mortgage market is the largest for consumer finance, information such as this in one database on a national level is never before seen, the CFPB said.
This database will allow a broader strategy to help streamline data for research and policy analysis and to ensure accurate information is used to monitor the market, the CFPB said.
Creating this database is expected to be a complex undertaking. The agencies involved have signed an Inter-Agency Agreement to establish terms for developing, maintaining and funding the system.
Development is underway. Early versions are to be completed in 2013.
CFPB forms National Mortgage Database
