Starting January 1, lenders will be required to collect and report rate spread data on certain loans under the U.S. Home Mortgage Disclosure Act. This information, which will become publicly available in the summer of 2005, is intended to shed light on the pricing practices of lenders, particularly regarding higher-cost loans. Unfortunately, this expanded data availability may also inadvertently increase the opportunities to reach misleading and out-of-context conclusions based on incomplete data. The Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, enacted by the Federal Reserve Board's Regulation C in 1975, requires certain financial institutions to publicly report data on real estate-secured loan applications each calendar year.