12/06/2004
The bank currently offers a lower interest rate on credit cards to its employees than to its customers. Is this a violation of 12 CFR something, 12 USC 375 "a" and "b", or any other regulation?
12/01/2004
Question: We are a little confused after talking with our examiner about the differences between a purchase money loan and a refinancing when the refinancing is of the purchase mon
12/01/2004
Fair lending enforcement actions lay out the actions needed to correct a problem that has been identified.
09/20/2004
I realize that, under the old SSCRA, Section 1078 of title 20 was interpreted to trump the interest rate cap on student loans. The newly enacted SCRA does not make any reference to this. Does this section still trump the interest rate cap?
09/20/2004
The FFIEC Guide to HMDA Reporting provides two clear examples of how to calculate the Treasury yield based on whether the interest rate was set prior to the 15th of the month or after the 15th of the month. On interest rates set prior to the 15th of the month you would use the Treasury yield for the prior month and on interest rates set after the 15th of the month you would use the Treasury yield from the same month as the lock. I would like to confirm that the Treasury yield used for HOEPA purposes (I realize the Treasury yield is triggered by the application for credit date and not the lock date) is calculated in the same manner. There seems to be some differing opinion in that no matter what date the application was taken, the Treasury Yield would be used from the previous month. Please clarify this for me.
08/02/2004
For a HMDA rate spread date, what do you use if you do not use a lock-in agreement, would it be up to the bank to spell out what they will use consistently?
05/17/2004
I know that in consumer loans the maximum rate that can be assessed is 18% in many states. My question is, could the APR be more than 18%? We have a specific case where the rate is 15.50% and the APR is 18.285% (there is a fee of $50.00 being financed). Is this a violation?
04/19/2004
I'm in the process of completing an audit of the Fair Housing Act for a national bank. The OCC requires that "each bank shall attempt to obtain all of the information below." It then goes on to require a considerable amount of information in excess of the traditional government monitoring information (race, ethnicity, sex, marital status, and age). Is all of this information required to be on the application? Will the information (such as amount requested, interest rate requested, # of months to maturity, and proposed monthly payment) being in the loan file on some other document suffice? Also, does the fact that the application is partially completed suffice for compliance with the regulation for "attempting to obtain" the information?
02/16/2004
When using the HMDA rate calculator, which term would we use on our loans? On most of our real estate loans, we lock the interest rate in for 2-4 years, but set the payments up on a 10 year payoff. Would we use the 2-4 years or the 10 year term that it will take to pay the loan off? We want to use the correct term.
01/05/2004
We have some confusion distinguishing a renewal note from a refinanced note. At our bank we very seldom "refinance" debt secured by a dwelling. We "renew" the loan, retain original note, mortgage and all other documents, obtain a new promissory note (keep the same loan number) and modify the mortgage to reflet the new terms (i.e. new interest rate and new maturity date.) We refinance when we add new funds. Or, when a construction loan is financed into a permanent loan. We consider our renewal note as an Extension Agreement. How does this relate to the new definition of "refinance"? The word "renew" is no longer in the definition. This becomes important especially for commercial loans secured by a dwelling.