I understand how to determine which date to use for reporting purposes. For commercial loans this can be tricky since written applications are not typically used. Here is my scenario: I have a commercial loan that meets the definition of "refinance". The new loan is refinancing an existing loan and advancing new money. For example sake, say the loan officer took the loan request over the phone on the 10th of the month. The customer is coming in to sign the refinance documents on the 12th, however the date of the new note is being back dated to the 1st of the month - that's when the loan being refi'd came due. My dilemma is this: my application date is the 10th, but my note date (or action date) is the 1st. I get an error when my application date is the same date or a later date than my action date. Backdating of commercial notes is a common practice for our bank so getting anyone to change that won't help. Any suggestions as I'm finishing my data scrub for submission next week?

The 2006 FFIEC Getting It Right Guide states: "Date of action taken. Enter the settlement or closing date for originations for HMDA." To me the action taken date would be the actual date you disbursed the funds to pay off the old loan (the 12th or later), irrespective of your note date. The Note date is not a HMDA reportable field.

I agree. Your action date is the the 12th, not the 1st. I would retain documentation that explains why this happened.

I'm also not comfortable with back dating a note.

I think the original question is about the application date, not the action date.

Yes it was and MoMan's response is that the action date can be reported as the disbursement/settlement date, therefore using that date instead of the note date would allow the application date (in this case the 10th was used as an example) not to be after the action date.

And BTW and FWIW, I'm not a big fan of back dating notes either, technically that's falsifying bank records IMO. And I don't care if it is a widely accepted practice, it's still falsifying records.

Sorry, I got off tract. I think the application date is the 10th. This is when the applicant called and the information was taken. They closed the loan 2 days later.

You can't have a note before an application.

Dan you would really hate it here. We are still adding CRA and HMDA loans that were renewed and backdated to before the end of the year. This is a regular practice that makes us want to scream (or whop them).