The Federal Reserve’s rules on home mortgage disclosures — also adopted by HUD and by all of the bank regulatory agencies — requires a financial institution to “collect data regarding applications for, and originations and purchases of, home purchase and home improvement loans (including refinancings of both) for each calendar year.” The rule goes on to define a “refinancing” as a loan to repay “an existing obligation by the same borrower, in which . . . the existing obligation is a home purchase loan (as determined by the lender . . . or as stated by the applicant), and both the existing obligation and the new obligation are secured by first liens on dwellings . . . .”

Here, when determining whether the loan is HMDA reportable, we believe that you need to look at whether the initial obligation was a home purchase loan. Even if the dwelling in question is being used only for business purposes, if the loan will be replacing an existing obligation that was a home purchase loan, the refinancing will be HMDA reportable. Whether this is the case will be determined by representations made by the borrower or by any documentation available to the lender who is refinancing the loan.