Privacy Act of 1974; Notification To Delete and Create a New System of Records, “HUD/FHA Lender Approval Files” to New Lender Electronic Assessment Portal

HUD is providing public notice that it proposes to design a new system, the Lender Electronic Assessment Portal (LEAP), and revise and delete information published in the Federal Register (FR) about one of its existing Privacy Act system of records. The creation of the new system is to facilitate migration and streamline efforts for record collection activities under the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) lender approval and recertification process. The new system LEAP will take full custody over the records currently maintained by HUD's Lender Approval Files System of Records Notice (SORN) and will fully automate the manual records process for these records. The HUD/FHA Lender Approval Files SORN contains information pertaining to individuals who are principals or officers of financial institutions seeking approval or approved to originate, service, or hold FHA single family or multifamily insured mortgages, or Title I and Title II insured loans. Fully automating and streamlining HUD's lender approval and recertification process enables HUD's Office of FHA to efficiently perform the workflow operation and the assessments required to ascertain a financial institution's eligibility and/or qualification to participating under a FHA-insured mortgage, or Title I and Title II insured loans. Subsequent changes that have occurred for the previously published notice involve: Changes to the Categories of Individuals Covered by the System, Categories of Records in the System, Purposes of the System, and Routine Uses of Records Maintained in the System, Including Categories of Users and Purposes of Such Users. This notice serves to update, replace and delete the prior SORN reference published in the Federal Register on August 22, 1999 for HUD/FHA Lender Approval Files.