On May 20, 2020, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) announced the release of final rule designed to modernize its regulations regarding the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). The final CRA modernization rule makes the following changes in the CRA compliance framework: Clarifies and expands the types of lending, investments and services activities [...]
On April 27, 2020, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released a blog post about Fair Lending to minority and women-owned businesses. The blog entry explains the purpose of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act and Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). These loans are designed to allow small businesses to [...]
On April 15th, federal and state financial institution regulators, through the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC), released several updates to the Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering (BSA/AML) examination manual. The manual is used to evaluate compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money laundering requirements. Revisions were made by the Federal Reserve Board, Federal Deposit [...]
On April 1, 2020, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released the Modified Loan Application Registers (LARs) reflecting 2019 mortgage lending activity reported under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA). These reports represent the second release of HMDA data under the new rule implemented in 2015. Starting in 2018, under the 2015 HMDA Rule, financial [...]
On April 6, 2020, a white paper on the effects of the coronavirus pandemic was published publicly and addressed to the current director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB, the Bureau), Kathleen Kraninger. This white paper – authored by Richard Cordray (former CFPB director), Diane Thompson (former CFPB deputy assistant director of regulations) and [...]
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has assessed a $450,000 civil money penalty against Michael LaFontaine, former chief operational risk officer at U.S. Bank, for his failure to prevent violations of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) during his tenure. According to the FinCEN order, Michael LaFontaine at various times had responsibility for overseeing U.S. Bank’s anti-money laundering [...]
On Friday, August 30, 2019, the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) announced the availability of data reported under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) for 2018 lending activity. The newly released datasets follow the release of the modified HMDA data in March 2019, which provided lender-level datasets. The newly released data includes a static [...]
On July 29, 2019 the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced its approval of an agreement between the California Reinvestment Coalition (CRC) and OneWest Bank. This complaint settles allegations by CRC that the bank discriminated against minority communities in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The complaint filed with the HUD in 2017 [...]
On July 22, the federal financial institution regulatory agencies: Office of the Comptroller of Currency (OCC), National Credit Union Asministration (NCUA), Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, in conjunction with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), issued a Joint Statement on Risk-Focused Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering Supervision. The Joint [...]
Freedom Mortgage Corp., based in Mount Laurel, New Jersey, agreed to pay $1.75 million to settle accusations that it intentionally reported inaccurate information about the race, sex, and ethnicity of loan applicants, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau stated Wednesday, with the release of a consent order. The findings cited Freedom with instructing its loan officers [...]
