WASHINGTON Federal regulators have given thrifts a short reprieve from new reporting requirements on subprime lending, but industry officials said they object to submitting the data at all.
The Office of Thrift Supervision announced Wednesday that thrifts do not have to start providing information on subprime and high-loan-to-value credits until their third-quarter 2001 financial reports, which are due the end of October.
Most other new thrift and holding company data requirements will kick in with the first-quarter reports, which are due at the end of April. A few new reporting requirements, such as the collection of thrifts trust assets, will be delayed until the first-quarter 2002 reports. The OTS first proposed these requirements in August.
The agency postponed requests for subprime data to give itself and bank regulators more time to define a subprime loan.
Thrift industry officials said they are upset that the agency did not follow the lead of banking regulators, who this month withdrew a proposal to add subprime lending information to commercial banks quarterly call reports.
We are disappointed that the OTS is out in front on this, said Charlotte M. Bahin, director of regulatory affairs at Americas Community Bankers.
Ms. Bahin complained that, depending on how broadly the agencies define subprime lending, thrifts may have to refuse loans to applicants with damaged credit or who live in hard-to-serve areas, out of concern that examiners would classify the loans as subprime.
Under the new reporting mandates for the 1,075 institutions the agency regulates, thrifts that make subprime loans must disclose data on eight types of credits, including revolvers, open-end loans secured by homes, credit cards issued to subprime borrowers, and consumer loans secured by cars.
Responding to other industry concerns, the agency said thrift holding companies may report consolidated financial data 45 days after the end of a quarter, an extension of the 30-day deadline for most other information. These data, required as part of the agencys effort to more closely supervise holding companies, will not be made public.
