NSMO 60-Day PRA Notice 89 FR 53086 (6-25-2024)

53086

Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 122 / Tuesday, June 25, 2024 / Notices

FEDERAL HOUSING FINANCE
AGENCY
[No. 2024–N–8]

Proposed Collection; Comment
Request
Federal Housing Finance
Agency.
ACTION: 60-Day notice of submission of
information collection for approval from
Office of Management and Budget.
AGENCY:

In accordance with the
requirements of the Paperwork
Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), the
Federal Housing Finance Agency
(FHFA) is seeking public comment on a
generic information collection called the
‘‘National Survey of Mortgage
Originations’’ (NSMO). FHFA intends to
submit the information collection to
OMB for review and approval of a threeyear control number.
DATES: Interested persons may submit
comments on or before August 26, 2024.
ADDRESSES: Submit comments to FHFA,
identified by ‘‘Proposed Collection;
Comment Request: ‘National Survey of
Mortgage Originations, (No. 2024–N–
8)’ ’’ by any of the following methods:
• Agency Website: www.fhfa.gov/
open-for-comment-or-input.
• Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://
www.regulations.gov. Follow the
instructions for submitting comments. If
you submit your comment to the
Federal eRulemaking Portal, please also
send it by email to FHFA at
[email protected] to ensure
timely receipt by the agency.
• Mail/Hand Delivery: Federal
Housing Finance Agency, Fourth Floor,
400 Seventh Street SW, Washington, DC
20219, ATTENTION: Proposed
Collection; Comment Request: ‘‘National
Survey of Mortgage Originations, (No.
2024–N–8).’’
FHFA will post all public comments
on the FHFA public website at http://
www.fhfa.gov, except as described
below. Commenters should submit only
information that the commenter wishes
to make available publicly. FHFA may
post only a single representative
example of identical or substantially
identical comments, and in such cases
will generally identify the number of
identical or substantially identical
comments represented by the posted
example. FHFA may, in its discretion,
redact or refrain from posting all or any
portion of any comment that contains
content that is obscene, vulgar, profane,
or threatens harm. All comments,
including those that are redacted or not
posted, will be retained in their original
form in FHFA’s internal file and

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considered as required by all applicable
laws. Commenters that would like
FHFA to consider any portion of their
comment exempt from disclosure on the
basis that it contains trade secrets, or
financial, confidential or proprietary
data or information, should follow the
procedures in section IV.D. of FHFA’s
Policy on Communications with
Outside Parties in Connection with
FHFA Rulemakings, see https://
www.fhfa.gov/sites/default/files/
documents/Ex-Parte-CommunicationsPublic-Policy_3-5-19.pdf. FHFA cannot
guarantee that such data or information,
or the identity of the commenter, will
remain confidential if disclosure is
sought pursuant to an applicable statute
or regulation. See 12 CFR 1202.8, 12
CFR 1214.2. and https://www.fhfa.gov/
about/foia-reference-guide for
additional information.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
A. Need For and Use of the Information
Collection
The NSMO is a recurring quarterly
survey of individuals who have recently
obtained a loan secured by a first
mortgage on single-family residential
property. The survey questionnaire is
mailed to a representative sample of
approximately 6,000 recent mortgage
borrowers each calendar quarter and
typically consists of about 96 multiple
choice and short answer questions
designed to obtain information about
borrowers’ experiences in choosing and
in taking out a mortgage. The
questionnaire may be completed either
on paper (in English only) or
electronically online (in either English
or Spanish). FHFA is also seeking
clearance to pretest future iterations of
the survey questionnaire and related
materials from time to time through the
use of cognitive pre-testing.
The NSMO is a component of the
‘‘National Mortgage Database’’ (NMDB)
Program which is a joint effort of FHFA
and the Consumer Financial Protection
Bureau (CFPB). The NMDB Program is
designed to satisfy the Congressionallymandated requirements of section
1324(c) of the Federal Housing
Enterprises Financial Safety and
Soundness Act.1 Section 1324(c)
requires that FHFA conduct a monthly
survey to collect data on the
characteristics of individual prime and
subprime mortgages, and on the
borrowers and properties associated
with those mortgages, in order to enable
it to prepare a detailed annual report on
the mortgage market activities of the
Federal National Mortgage Association
(Fannie Mae) and the Federal Home
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2 OMB has assigned the ASMB control no. 2590–
0015, which expires on July 31, 2025.

U.S.C. 4544(c).

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Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie
Mac) for review by the appropriate
Congressional oversight committees.
Section 1324(c) also authorizes and
requires FHFA to compile a database of
otherwise unavailable residential
mortgage market information and to
make that information available to the
public in a timely fashion.
As a means of fulfilling those and
other statutory requirements, as well as
to support policymaking and research
regarding the residential mortgage
markets, FHFA and CFPB jointly
established the NMDB Program in 2012.
The Program is designed to provide
comprehensive information about the
U.S. mortgage market and has three
primary components: (1) the NMDB; (2)
the NSMO; and (3) the American Survey
of Mortgage Borrowers (ASMB).
The NMDB is a de-identified loanlevel database of closed-end first-lien
residential mortgage loans that is
representative of the market as a whole,
contains detailed loan-level information
on the terms and performance of the
mortgages and the characteristics of the
associated borrowers and properties, is
continually updated, has an historical
component dating back to 1998, and
provides a sampling frame for surveys to
collect additional information. The core
data in the NMDB are drawn from a
random 1-in-20 sample of all closed-end
first-lien mortgage files outstanding at
any time between January 1998 and the
present in the files of Experian, one of
the three national credit repositories,
with a random sample of mortgages
newly reported to Experian added each
quarter.
The NMDB draws additional
information on mortgages in the NMDB
datasets from other existing sources,
including the Home Mortgage
Disclosure Act (HMDA) data that are
maintained by the Federal Financial
Institutions Examination Council
(FFIEC), property valuation models, and
administrative data files maintained by
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and by
federal agencies. FHFA also obtains data
from the ASMB, which historically
solicited information on borrowers’
experience with maintaining their
existing mortgages, including their
experience maintaining mortgages
under financial stress, their experience
in soliciting financial assistance, their
success in accessing federally-sponsored
programs designed to assist them, and,
where applicable, any challenges they
may have had in terminating a mortgage
loan.2

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Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 122 / Tuesday, June 25, 2024 / Notices
While the ASMB focused on
borrowers’ experience with maintaining
existing mortgages, the NSMO solicits
information on newly-originated
mortgages and the borrowers’
experiences with the mortgage
origination process. It was developed to
complement the NMDB by providing
critical and timely information—not
available from existing sources—on the
range of nontraditional and subprime
mortgage products being offered, the
methods by which these mortgages are
being marketed, and the characteristics
of borrowers for these types of loans. In
particular, the survey questionnaire is
designed to elicit directly from mortgage
borrowers information on the
characteristics of the borrowers and on
their experiences in finding and
obtaining a mortgage loan, including:
their mortgage shopping behavior; their
mortgage closing experiences; their
expectations regarding house price
appreciation; and critical financial and
other life events affecting their
households, such as unemployment,
expenses or divorce. The survey
questions do not focus on the terms of
the borrowers’ mortgage loans because
these fields are available in the Experian
data. However, the NSMO collects a
limited amount of information on each
respondent’s mortgage to verify that the
Experian records and survey responses
pertain to the same mortgage.
Each wave of the NSMO is sent to the
primary borrowers on about 6,000
mortgage loans, which are drawn from
a simple random sample of the newly
originated mortgage loans that are added
to the National Mortgage Database from
the Experian files each quarter. Because
the volume of originations varies across
time, the sampling rate for the 6,000
sampled loans also varies from one
quarter to the next. On average, the
NSMO sample represents an
approximately 1-in-15 sample of loans
added to the National Mortgage
Database and an approximately 1-in-300
sample of all mortgage loan originations.
By contract with FHFA, the conduct of
the NSMO is administered through
Experian, which has subcontracted the
survey administration through a
competitive process to Westat, a
nationally-recognized survey vendor.3
Westat also carries out the pre-testing of
the survey materials.
3 The Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 U.S.C. 1681
et seq., requires that the survey process, because it
utilizes borrower names and addresses drawn from
credit reporting agency records, must be
administered through Experian in order to maintain
consumer privacy.

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B. Need For and Use of the Information
Collection
FHFA views the NMDB Program as a
whole, including the NSMO, as the
monthly ‘‘survey’’ that is required by
section 1324 of the Safety and
Soundness Act. Core inputs to the
NMDB, such as a regular refresh of the
Experian data, occur monthly, though
NSMO itself does not. In combination
with the other information in the
NMDB, the information obtained
through the NSMO is used to prepare
the report to Congress on the mortgage
market activities of Fannie Mae and
Freddie Mac that FHFA is required to
submit under section 1324, as well as
for research and analysis by FHFA and
CFPB in support of their regulatory and
supervisory responsibilities related to
the residential mortgage markets. The
NSMO is especially critical in ensuring
that the NMDB contains uniquely
comprehensive information on the range
of nontraditional and subprime
mortgage products being offered, the
methods by which these mortgages are
being marketed and the characteristics—
and particularly the creditworthiness—
of borrowers for these types of loans.
Since November 2018 FHFA and
CFPB have periodically released loanlevel datasets collected through the
NSMO for public use. Each release
incrementally adds loans collected from
additional waves of the survey. The
most recent release was in March 2023
covering loans originated through
2020.4 Prior to each release, FHFA and
the CFPB implement a series of
disclosure avoidance analyses and
protections to ensure that the
confidentiality of study participants is
protected. The loan-level datasets
provide a resource for research and
analysis by federal agencies, by Fannie
Mae and Freddie Mac, and by
academics and other interested parties
outside of the government.
FHFA is also seeking OMB approval
to continue to conduct cognitive pretesting of the survey materials. The
Agency uses information collected
through that process to assist in drafting
and modifying the survey questions and
instructions, as well as the related
communications, to read in the way that
will be most readily understood by the
survey respondents and that will be
most likely to elicit usable responses.
Such information is also used to help
the Agency decide on how best to
organize and format the survey
questionnaires.
4 The March 2023 NSMO public use dataset can
be accessed here: https://www.fhfa.gov/DataTools/
Downloads/Pages/NMDB_Data_Sets.aspx.

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53087

FHFA previously maintained a
standard clearance for this information
collection, the OMB control number for
that clearance was 2590–0012.
C. Burden Estimate
FHFA has analyzed the hour burden
on members of the public associated
with conducting the survey (10,080
hours) and with pre-testing the survey
materials (50 hours) and estimates the
total annual hour burden imposed on
the public by this information collection
to be 10,130 hours. The estimate for
each phase of the collection was
calculated as follows:
I. Conducting the Survey
FHFA estimates that the NSMO
questionnaire will be sent to 24,000
recipients annually (6,000 recipients per
quarterly survey × 4 calendar quarters).
Although, based on historical
experience, the Agency expects that
only 20 to 30 percent of those surveys
will be returned, it has assumed that all
of the surveys will be returned for
purposes of this burden calculation.
Based on the reported experience of
respondents to prior NSMO
questionnaires, FHFA estimates that it
will take each respondent 25 minutes to
complete the survey, including the
gathering of necessary materials to
respond to the questions. This results in
a total annual burden estimate of 10,080
hours for the survey phase of this
collection (24,000 respondents × 25
minutes per respondent = 10,080 hours
annually).
II. Pre-Testing the Materials
FHFA estimates that it will pre-test
the survey materials with 50 cognitive
testing participants annually. The
estimated participation time for each
participant is one hour, resulting in a
total annual burden estimate of 50 hours
for the pre-testing phase of the
collection (50 participants × 1 hour per
participant = 50 hours annually).
D. Comment Request
FHFA requests written comments on
the following: (1) Whether the collection
of information is necessary for the
proper performance of FHFA functions,
including whether the information has
practical utility; (2) the accuracy of
FHFA’s estimates of the burdens of the
collection of information; (3) ways to
enhance the quality, utility, and clarity
of the information collected; and (4)
ways to minimize the burden of the
collection of information on
respondents, including through the use

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Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 122 / Tuesday, June 25, 2024 / Notices

of automated collection techniques or
other forms of information technology.
Shawn Bucholtz,
Chief Data Officer, Federal Housing Finance
Agency.
[FR Doc. 2024–13902 Filed 6–24–24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8070–01–P

FEDERAL HOUSING FINANCE
AGENCY
[No. 2024–N–7]

Proposed Collection; Comment
Request
Federal Housing Finance
Agency.
ACTION: 30-Day notice of submission of
information collection for approval from
the Office of Management and Budget.
AGENCY:

In accordance with the
requirements of the Paperwork
Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), the
Federal Housing Finance Agency
(FHFA, or Agency) is seeking public
comment concerning an information
collection known as the ‘‘American
Survey of Mortgage Borrowers (ASMB),’’
which has been assigned control
number 2590–0015 by the Office of
Management and Budget (OMB). FHFA
intends to submit the information
collection to OMB for review and
approval of a three-year extension of the
control number, which is due to expire
July 31, 2025.
DATES: Interested persons may submit
comments on or before July 25, 2024.
ADDRESSES: Submit comments to the
Office of Information and Regulatory
Affairs of the Office of Management and
Budget, Attention: Desk Officer for the
Federal Housing Finance Agency,
Washington, DC 20503, Fax: (202) 395–
3047, Email: OIRA_submission@
omb.eop.gov. Please also submit
comments to FHFA, identified by
‘‘Proposed Collection; Comment
Request: ‘American Survey of Mortgage
Borrowers, (No. 2024–N–7)’ ’’ by any of
the following methods:
• Agency Website: www.fhfa.gov/
open-for-comment-or-input.
• Federal eRulemaking Portal:
https://www.regulations.gov. Follow the
instructions for submitting comments. If
you submit your comment to the
Federal eRulemaking Portal, please also
send it by email to FHFA at
[email protected] to ensure
timely receipt by the agency.
• Mail/Hand Delivery: Federal
Housing Finance Agency, Fourth Floor,
400 Seventh Street SW, Washington, DC
20219, ATTENTION: Proposed
Collection; Comment Request:

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‘‘American Survey of Mortgage
Borrowers, (No. 2024–N–7).’’ Please
note that all mail sent to FHFA via U.S.
Mail is routed through a national
irradiation facility, a process that may
delay delivery by approximately two
weeks. For any time-sensitive
correspondence, please plan
accordingly.
FHFA will post all public comments
on the FHFA public website at http://
www.fhfa.gov, except as described
below. Commenters should submit only
information that the commenter wishes
to make available publicly. FHFA may
post only a single representative
example of identical or substantially
identical comments, and in such cases
will generally identify the number of
identical or substantially identical
comments represented by the posted
example. FHFA may, in its discretion,
redact or refrain from posting all or any
portion of any comment that contains
content that is obscene, vulgar, profane,
or threatens harm. All comments,
including those that are redacted or not
posted, will be retained in their original
form in FHFA’s internal file and
considered as required by all applicable
laws. Commenters that would like
FHFA to consider any portion of their
comment exempt from disclosure on the
basis that it contains trade secrets, or
financial, confidential or proprietary
data or information, should follow the
procedures in section IV.D. of FHFA’s
Policy on Communications with Outside
Parties in Connection with FHFA
Rulemakings, see https://www.fhfa.gov/
sites/default/files/documents/Ex-ParteCommunications-Public-Policy_3-519.pdf. FHFA cannot guarantee that
such data or information, or the identity
of the commenter, will remain
confidential if disclosure is sought
pursuant to an applicable statute or
regulation. See 12 CFR 1202.8, 12 CFR
1214.2. and https://www.fhfa.gov/about/
foia-reference-guide for additional
information.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Jonathan Spader, Manager, National
Mortgage Database Program,
[email protected], (202) 649–
3213; or Angela Supervielle, Senior
Counsel, [email protected],
(202) 649–3973, (these are not toll-free
numbers), Federal Housing Finance
Agency, 400 Seventh Street SW,
Washington, DC 20219. For TTY/TRS
users with hearing and speech
disabilities, dial 711 and ask to be
connected to any of the contact numbers
above.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

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A. Need for and Use of the Information
Collection
FHFA is seeking OMB clearance
under the PRA for a collection of
information known as the ‘‘American
Survey of Mortgage Borrowers’’ (ASMB).
The ASMB, conducted annually or
biennially, is a voluntary survey of
individuals who currently have a first
mortgage loan secured by single-family
residential property.
FHFA is also seeking clearance to
conduct cognitive testing interviews
that pre-test iterations of the survey
questionnaire and related materials from
time to time. The Agency uses
information collected through that
process to assist in drafting and
modifying the survey questions and
instructions, as well as the related
communications, to read in the way that
will be most readily understood by the
survey respondents and that will be
most likely to elicit usable responses.
Such information is also used to help
the Agency decide on how best to
organize and format the survey
questionnaires.
The American Survey of Mortgage
Borrowers is a component of the
‘‘National Mortgage Database’’ (NMDB®)
Program, which is a joint effort of FHFA
and the Consumer Financial Protection
Bureau (CFPB) (jointly, ‘‘the agencies’’).
The NMDB Program is designed to
satisfy the Congressionally-mandated
requirements of section 1324(c) of the
Federal Housing Enterprises Financial
Safety and Soundness Act.1 Section
1324(c) requires that FHFA conduct a
monthly survey to collect data on the
characteristics of individual prime and
subprime mortgages, and on the
borrowers and properties associated
with those mortgages, in order to enable
it to prepare a detailed annual report on
the mortgage market activities of the
Federal National Mortgage Association
(Fannie Mae) and the Federal Home
Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie
Mac) for review by the appropriate
Congressional oversight committees.
Section 1324(c) also authorizes and
requires FHFA to compile a database of
otherwise unavailable residential
mortgage market information and to
make that information available to the
public in a timely fashion.
As a means of fulfilling those and
other statutory requirements, as well as
to support policymaking and research
regarding the residential mortgage
markets, FHFA and CFPB jointly
established the NMDB Program in 2012.
The Program is designed to provide
comprehensive information about the
1 12

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U.S.C. 4544(c).

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