Two asset thresholds moved on 1 January: HMDA and the HPML escrow exemption
The CFPB's annual adjustments raised the HMDA reporting exemption to $59 million and the Regulation Z escrow exemption thresholds for 2026. Here is what moved and who it may reach.
A lot of the rules that decide whether a small institution is covered come down to a dollar figure, and some of those figures move every year with inflation. On 7 January 2026 the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau published two of these annual adjustments in the Federal Register. Both took effect the day they were published.
These adjustments are easy to miss, because the rule text stays the same and only the dollar figure moves. If your institution sits close to one of these lines, that figure decides which side you're on.
HMDA: the Regulation C asset-size exemption
Under Regulation C (12 CFR part 1003), a bank, savings association or credit union below an asset-size threshold is exempt from collecting Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data for the year.
The CFPB's adjustment raised that threshold from $58 million for 2025 to $59 million for 2026. In the Bureau's words, institutions with "assets of $59 million or less as of December 31, 2025" are "exempt from collecting data in 2026." The change is made in the official commentary, comment 2(g)-2 in Supplement I to Regulation C.
Check the date first. The test uses total assets as of 31 December 2025, not a later quarter.
The asset test is also only one of several. Whether an institution counts as a "financial institution" under Regulation C depends on other conditions too, such as where it has offices and how many covered loans it originated. Being under the asset threshold is enough for the exemption. Being over it doesn't by itself mean you have to collect data.
Regulation Z: the HPML escrow exemption thresholds
Regulation Z generally requires a creditor to set up an escrow account for a higher-priced mortgage loan (HPML). Section 1026.35(b)(2) carves out exemptions, and two of them use asset thresholds that adjust annually.
| Exemption | 2025 | 2026 | Asset date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Creditor asset threshold, § 1026.35(b)(2)(iii) | $2.717 billion | $2.785 billion | Total assets of less than $2,785,000,000 on 31 December 2025 |
| Insured depository institutions and insured credit unions, § 1026.35(b)(2)(vi) | $12.179 billion | $12.485 billion | Assets of $12,485,000,000 or less on 31 December 2025 |
The changes are made in comment 35(b)(2)(iii)-1 and comment 35(b)(2)(vi)(A)-1 of the official interpretations.
Here too the asset figure is only one condition. The (b)(2)(iii) exemption also looks at the creditor's lending in rural or underserved areas, its loan volume and whether it already maintains escrow accounts, so read the whole paragraph before relying on it.
What it could mean
For most institutions these notices change nothing. If you're near a line, though, it's real money. Drop under the HMDA threshold and you skip a year of data collection and the vendor bill that comes with it. Stay inside an escrow exemption and you don't have to set up escrow for your higher-priced mortgages. We think the bigger risk runs the other way: you grew past a line and nobody noticed, because the rule text never changed.
So give threshold tests their own small routine. Next to each decision that depends on one, write down the asset figure you used and the date it was measured. Recheck every January, when the CFPB usually publishes these. It's dull. Finding out a year late is worse.
This is also the sort of record applicable.ai keeps for each applicability decision: the conditions, exemptions and profile facts it relied on, with thresholds such as asset-size tiers worked out from the answers in your profile.