Top Story Compliance Related

The Bureau has released its 18th edition of Supervisory Highlights, which covers its supervision activities generally completed between June 2018 and November 2018, and includes examination findings in the areas of automobile loan servicing, deposits, mortgage servicing, and remittances.

The Federal Stability Oversight Council has published a rule [84 FR 8958, amending 12 CFR part 1310] stating that the Council shall not amend or rescind its interpretive guidance on nonbank financial company determinations without providing the public with notice and an opportunity to comment consistent with the Administrative Procedure Act. This rule is effective April 12, 2019.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has announced it settled charges against 79 investment advisers who will return more than $125 million to clients, with a substantial majority of the funds going to retail investors. The Commission's Share Class Selection Disclosure Initiative incentivized investment advisers to self-report violations of the Advisers Act resulting from undisclosed conflicts of interest, promptly compensate investors, and review and correct fee disclosures. The orders issued today address advisers who directly or indirectly received 12b-1 fees for investments selected for their clients without adequate disclosure, including disclosures that were inconsistent with the advisers’ actual practices.

HUD has announced it has entered into a Conciliation/Voluntary Compliance Agreement with a resident and owners of a San Diego apartment complex. The agreement resolves allegations that Wakeland Atmosphere, L.P. and FPI Management, Inc., the owners and managers of Atmosphere Apartments, refused to grant the resident’s request for a designated parking space close to the building.

The Treasury Department has announced that OFAC has designated Evrofinance Mosnarbank, a Moscow-based bank that is jointly owned by Russian and Venezuelan state-owned companies. Monday’s action, taken pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13850, targets a foreign financial institution that has materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of, Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. (PdVSA), which is itself an entity that has long been a vehicle for corruption, embezzlement, and money laundering by former Venezuelan President Maduro and his cronies. PdVSA, which was designated for operating in the oil sector of Venezuela on January 28, 2019, is a Venezuelan state-owned oil company. For identity information on the bank, see our OFAC Update.

OFAC has posted a notice that it has issued Venezuela-related General Licenses 3D (“Authorizing Transactions Related to, Provisions of Financing for, and Other Dealings in Certain Bonds") and 9C (“Authorizing Transactions Related to Dealings in Certain Securities"). FAQs 661 and 662 were also updated.

OCC Bulletin 2019-12, issued yesterday, informs OCC-supervised institutions about key data fields that the OCC has determined examiners will typically use to test and validate the accuracy and reliability of home mortgage loan data collected beginning in 2018. Of 110 data fields, 37 have been identified as key fields by the OCC, Fed, and FDIC on an interagency basis. OCC examiners will typically test and validate these 37 key fields for the banks that are required to collect, record, and report information for all HMDA data fields.

The CFPB has posted an article on the issuance of the FFIEC Policy Statement on the Report of Examination, which was developed as part of the FFIEC’s examination moderation project. The FFIEC federal banking agency members (Fed, OCC and FDIC) are rescinding their 1993 Interagency Policy Statement on the Uniform Core Report of Examination, replacing it with the FFIEC Policy Statement.

The FDIC has issued FIL-10-2019 to announced that the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) has approved the implementation of changes to all three versions of the Call Report (FFIEC 031, 041, and 051), the Foreign Branch Report of Condition (FFIEC 030), the Abbreviated Foreign Branch Report of Condition (FFIEC 030S) and the Regulatory Capital Reporting for Institutions Subject to the Advanced Capital Adequacy Framework (FFIEC 101). The revised reporting requirements will be phased in starting as of the March 31, 2019, report date subject to approval by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.

Redlined copies of forms 031, 041, 051 and 101 showing the reporting changes are available on the FFIEC's website on the page for each form.

The Federal Reserve Board has announced that it will limit the use of the "qualitative objection" in its Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review (CCAR) exercise, effective with the 2019 cycle. The changes eliminate the qualitative objection for most firms due to the improvements in capital planning made by the largest firms. The instructions for the 2019 CCAR exercise were also released.

Update: Published at 84 FR 8953 3/13/2019' effective on publication.