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Fair Lending - Incomplete Application

Question: 
I understand that as far as HMDA is concerned, an application that cannot be considered due to incompleteness is incomplete (5) and coded as such, but for Fair Lending purposes, is the file considered withdrawn or denied?
Answer: 

Answer by Randy Carey:
Neither, it would be incomplete, but one may need to know the context of the question, as "Fair Lending" is not a specific regulation with specific definitions.

Answer: 

Answer by Lucy Griffin:
Whether you consider the application withdrawn or denied depends on how you handle it. Under Regulation B, you may send a Notice of Incompleteness which requests the missing information and provides a deadline for providing it. If the applicant doesn't reply, the application is considered withdrawn.

The other method is to deny the application for incompleteness and send an adverse action notice.

Either way, the applicant should get a notice of some kind. And for fair lending purposes, you should be consistent in how incomplete applications are treated so that there is no difference between applicants on any prohibited basis.

First published on BankersOnline.com 3/22/10

First published on 03/22/2010

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