LEIs for HMDA Reporting

Introduction to the LEI

A Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) is a 20 digit code that is unique to a legal entity and provides basic information about the entity such as name, address and entity type e.g Limited Company. We explore this further in our recent post What is the Legal Entity Identifier?

LEIs are required by any legal entity that is involved with financial transactions or operating within today's financial system. This applies in particular with regard the EU and the US. There are a number of mandates currently in existence which state "no LEI, no trade" meaning both reporting parties and traders require an LEI such as Mifid II. To see a comprehensive outline of the regulatory use of the LEI please see our recent post on the matter.

Mortgage lenders in the US also have rigorous reporting duties when it comes to the LEI. If you are struggling to match in house data with public LEI data please check out our LEI Data Management solutions here.

LEI is a mandate for Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) Reporting

If you are a Mortgage Originator in the United States you should by now be familiar with the LEI requirement for HMDA reporting as you will be requested to provide it on the HDMA platform.

The LEI plays a key role in protecting consumers within the American mortgage market. Regulation C in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) stipulates that the LEI is a requirement for reporting purposes.

The US is the largest consumer of the LEI, with nearly 14% of the worlds LEIs originating there. This is due to the large number of US regulations requesting the LEI for transaction reporting purposes such as the Dodd Frank Act.

What is HMDA LEI Requirement?

HMDA data is a large source of publicly available information in the United States. This allows consumers to have visibility in the process ultimately protecting all parties involved.

The Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) requires the financial institutions involved to maintain, report and control data regarding the information within mortgage transactions.

This data has multiple functions in society, including showing patterns around lending processes, highlighting trends in the industry and also protect against fraud or discrimination.

In this way HDMA is perfectly aligned with the LEI, whose goal is also to deliver transparency to the global financial system. It achieves this by providing an identifier for organisations that is reliable, trustworthy, from a valid source and easily accessible.

The LEI is now incorporated in to Regulation C because the financial institution involved must provide its LEI instead of the HDME RID when submitting HDMA data.

Benefits of utilising the LEI for HDMA Reporting

HDMA reporting will now rely on using a digital identification system to verify the identity of the loan originator.
This will benefit the users of HDMA data because the LEI record of the originator will include key data about that entity. This data includes confirmation of it existence, date of formation, legal address etc.

The LEI provides free access to a database of high quality and reliable data for HDMA data users.

The LEI can be embedded into the Universal Loan Identifier (ULI) to bring about new consumer protection capabilities through studying and interpreting the data it will provide. The ULI application process begins with providing your LEI. No LEI, no ULI.

Why obtain your LEI from LEI Worldwide?

✅Fast issuance guaranteed
✅Simple, online application form. No paper or signatures required
✅24/7 Customer support team
✅Official GLEIF LEI Registration Agent
✅Automatic LEI renewal system
✅Guidance and support provided while maintaining your LEI record & data
✅Hassle free HDMA compliance

4 Steps to getting your LEI Code for the HMDA Platform

1. Click on the 'Register New LEI' button here or visit the homepage of this website. To begin, fill out your contact details as the applicant. This information will be used to contact you in case any additional information is required.

2. Next, begin filling out the details of the entity which requires an LEI. This will include information such as the address, name of Director or person legally responsible for the institution such as CEO, or Owner.

3. The next section 'Level 2 Data' gives you the opportunity to report parent company information.

For example, if your entity has subsidiaries or its parent is of a larger structure, you may have that information appear on the LEI record. However, this is not a legal obligation. If you wish to report a legal parent, please note that you will be requested to provide evidence of this relationship by way of Consolidated Accounts (i.e an annual report).

You may only report parent information if the parent company consolidates the accounts and the subsidiary is listed there.

4. The final section allows you to upload documentation relevant to your application. When an LEI application is submitted, the data is cross matched with what is on the relevant local companies registry.

If however the company cannot be found, or the data does not match the registry, we may request that you provide supporting documentation. Some good examples include a Certificate of Incumbency, Register of Directors, trust or a registry extract.

Once the application is submitted, simply choose your preferred payment method and complete the application. LEI Worldwide use our payments provider STRIPE and PayPal. We also offer the ability to complete a bank transfer or swift payment in any currency including US Dollars.

A member of the LEI Worldwide team will review the submission upon completion and you will receive your LEI code within a few hours.

If you have any questions please contact [email protected]

To apply for your own LEI or on behalf of a legal entity, please select the option from the buttons below.