For the 2026 cycle, HMDA is about executing familiar rules cleanly, on time, and with a record that holds up to review. The reference material has a name many reporters know (the FFIEC's "A Guide to HMDA Reporting: Getting It Right!") but this is only one input.
This guide lays out what the FFIEC guide is and where it stops, how the annual Filing Instructions Guide fills the gap, the deadlines that structure the year, the parts of the process that most often go wrong, and a readiness checklist you can work through with the help of Ask Kaia.
What "Getting It Right" Means and the FFIEC Guide
"Getting It Right" is the shorthand for filing HMDA data that is complete, accurate, and submitted on time. The FFIEC guide is not reissued every year, and its most recent edition was published in 2024 for data collected that year.
That is why getting it right in 2026 means treating the FFIEC guide as the foundation. It explains how the register works and what the rules require. For the specifics of a given collection year, reporters turn to a companion document that is refreshed annually.
The Guide vs. the Annual Filing Instructions Guide (FIG)
The document that carries the year-specific detail is the Filing Instructions Guide. Published for each collection year, the FIG spells out the file format, the data fields, the valid values, and the edit checks the submission platform will run.
Data collected during 2025 is filed by early 2026 under the FIG for that collection year, and data collected during 2026 is filed in early 2027 under its own FIG. A reporter aiming to get HMDA right in 2026 should be working from the FIG that matches the data being submitted.
The FFIEC HMDA guide gives you the reasoning behind coverage and the data points while the FIG gives you the exact specifications your file has to meet.
The 2026 HMDA Reporting Timeline
The 2026 reporting year is structured by a few fixed dates. Covered institutions record each loan's data on the LAR within 30 calendar days after the end of the calendar quarter in which they took final action.
Larger-volume reporters also submit quarterly data for the first three quarters within 60 calendar days of each quarter's end. Every covered institution submits its annual LAR by March 1 following the collection year.
The table below lays out the core HMDA reporting timeline milestones for the 2026 cycle, who they apply to, and when each falls.
| Milestone | Who it applies to | Timing | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Record data on the LAR | All covered institutions | Within 30 days of quarter-end | Applies to the quarter in which final action was taken |
| Quarterly submissions (Q1–Q3) | Reporters with 60,000+ combined applications and loans | Within 60 days of each quarter-end | Fourth quarter folds into the annual filing |
| Annual LAR submission | All covered institutions | By March 1 following the collection year | Filed through the FFIEC HMDA Platform |
The Most Error-Prone Parts of Getting It Right
Misjudged coverage calls are a frequent starting point for errors, because whether an institution or a particular transaction is covered turns on tests that reward careful reading. Other areas where errors can happen include:
- Geocoding/census tract entries (out of date or attached to the wrong property)
- Rate-spread fields (dependent on calculations sensitive to loan terms/timing)
- Action-taken and denial reason codes (may not reflect what happened)
- Files with more than one applicant
Validation is where these issues either get caught or get filed. The submission platform's edit checks flag format and range problems, but they only confirm that an entry is well-formed. Getting it right means testing for accuracy.
A Getting-It-Right Readiness Checklist for 2026
A readiness checklist turns "get HMDA right" from an aspiration into a sequence of concrete steps. Reporters who work through the following before the deadline tend to file more cleanly:
Confirm scope
Re-verify institutional and transactional coverage against Regulation C for the collection year, since thresholds and activity can change your status. This is one reason coverage sits so close to the discipline of managing regulatory change.
Set data governance
Establish a single source of truth for the fields that feed the LAR, so pricing, action, and applicant data do not diverge across systems.
Validate against source records
Compare high-risk fields against the underlying files rather than trusting the entry alone.
Run an edit-check dry run
Test the register against the current FIG's edit checks well before March 1, so failures surface with time to fix them.
Map the timeline and document the work
Mark the recording, quarterly, and annual dates, and keep a record of what was checked and resolved for internal governance and examiner review.
How Kaia Supports HMDA Reporting Accuracy
AI assistance supports getting HMDA right by handling the repetitive validation work and routing judgment calls to a person. An assistant can re-check geocoding, recompute expected pricing values, compare action codes against decision records, and surface the entries that look inconsistent with the current FIG's rules.
Kaia, the AI compliance assistant, is one implementation of this pattern applied to HMDA reporting. In this role, an assistant like Kaia can validate register entries against source data, organize edit-check results so a reviewer sees the exceptions first, and flag anomalies in the fields that most often cause problems.
While the assistant flags and organizes, a compliance analyst confirms each correction and owns the filing decision. An audit trail records what was checked, what was flagged, and how each exception was resolved, which supports both internal governance and the continuous controls monitoring an examiner looks for.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there a 2026 edition of the Getting It Right guide?
The FFIEC "Getting It Right" guide is not reissued every year, and its most recent edition was published in 2024 for data collected that year. There is no confirmed separate annual edition for every cycle. For 2026-cycle specifics, reporters should rely on the Filing Instructions Guide for the collection year being submitted, which carries the current file format, valid values, and edit checks.
Who has to report HMDA data quarterly?
Quarterly reporting applies to institutions that reported a combined total of at least 60,000 applications and covered loans, excluding purchased loans, for the preceding calendar year. Those larger-volume reporters submit data for the first three quarters within 60 calendar days of each quarter's end, in addition to the annual filing. The fourth quarter is folded into the annual LAR submission due by March 1.
What are the most common HMDA reporting errors?
Common HMDA reporting errors include misjudged coverage determinations, stale or mismatched geocoding and census tracts, rate-spread calculation problems, action-taken or denial codes that do not match the file, and misattributed entries in multiple-applicant files.
Can AI help with HMDA reporting?
Yes, within a controlled workflow. An AI assistant can validate LAR entries against source data, recompute expected values, compare codes against decision records, and flag anomalies for review, which speeds up the repetitive validation work.
Getting HMDA right in 2026 is an execution challenge which is why validating against source records is the habit that separates a clean filing from a corrected one. Next, look at how HMDA data quality is built across the reporting lifecycle.
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