Top Story Compliance Related

The NCUA has released a new guidebook to help credit unions better meet members’ needs for digital banking services. Going Digital: Strategies for Providing Digital Services provides step-by-step instructions for creating a strategic plan for analyzing members’ needs and tailoring digital products to meet those needs. It also details potential advantages and disadvantages to members and credit unions.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has published a final rule at 81 FR 52353 in today's Federal Register identifying communities where the sale of flood insurance has been authorized under the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) that are scheduled for suspension on September 16, 2016, for noncompliance with the floodplain management requirements of the program. Affected communities are portions of Prince George's County, Maryland, and portions of Northumberland County, Pennsylvania.

The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) has published a press release inviting public comment on a proposal for a new and streamlined Call Report for small financial institutions (those with domestic offices only and less than $1 billion in total assets). The streamlined Call Report would reduce the existing Call Report from 85 to 61 pages resulting from the removal of approximately 950 or about 40 percent of the nearly 2,400 data items in the Call Report. The proposed changes would eliminate certain data items and would reduce the reporting frequency of other data items. Additionally, for certain complex and specialized activities, the proposal would consolidate five schedules into a single new supplemental schedule. Comments will be accepted for 60 days following publication in the Federal Register.

Update: The Notice and Request for Comment was published at 81 FR 54190 in the August 15, 2016, Federal Register. Comments are due by October 14, 2016.

The FDIC has released a list of 38 state nonmember banks recently evaluated for compliance with the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). The list covers evaluation ratings that the FDIC assigned to institutions in May 2016. One bank received an outstanding rating, 35 were rated satisfactory, and two were rated "needs to improve."

HUD has announced that it has approved an agreement with the City of Richmond, Virginia, settling 14 complaints of housing discrimination filed against the City by Hispanic residents. The complaints alleged that the City of Richmond selectively enforced its code requirements against residents of the City’s mobile home parks, who are predominantly Hispanic. The complainants, who are current or former residents of mobile home parks in Richmond, alleged that, due to their national origin, the City imposed unreasonable and legally unjustified requirements that they had to meet to avoid condemnation of their homes; intimidated and harassed them by conducting intrusive inspections with armed police escorts and threatening criminal court action and large monetary fines; and failed to provide meaningful access to residents who have limited English proficiency. Under the terms of the agreement, Richmond will pay $30,000 in damages to some of the complainants, analyze its language access needs, develop a language access plan; and conduct outreach to the Spanish-speaking community.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has published in this morning's Federal Register [at 81 FR 51808] a final rule that identifies communities where the sale of flood insurance has been authorized under the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) that are scheduled for suspension on September 2, 2016, for noncompliance with the floodplain management requirements of the program. The affected communities are in the states of California, Washington and West Virginia.

The CFPB has issued a final rule to require residential mortgage loan servicers to provide certain borrowers with foreclosure protections more than once over the life of the loan, clarify borrower protections when the servicing of a loan is transferred, and provide important loan information to borrowers in bankruptcy. The changes also help ensure that surviving family members and others who inherit or receive property generally have the same protections under the CFPB’s mortgage servicing rules as the original borrower. The Bureau issued a proposed rule in November 2014, but has made several changes in the final rule based on comments received from the public. The rule will—

• require servicers to provide certain borrowers with foreclosure protections more than once of the life of their loan;
• expand consumer protections to surviving family members and other homeowners (successors in interest) when a borrower dies;
• reqire servicers to notify borrowers when loss mitigation applications are complete;
• protect struggling borrowers during servicing transfers;
• Clarify servicers’ obligations to avoid dual-tracking and prevent wrongful foreclosures; and
• Clarify when a borrower becomes delinquent.

The rule also provides servicers some flexibility to comply with certain force-placed insurance and periodic statement disclosure requirements, and clarify several requirements regarding early intervention, loss mitigation, information requests, and prompt crediting of payments, as well as the small servicer exemption.

Additionally, the Bureau issued an interpretive rule under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act relating to servicers' compliance with certain mortgage servicing provisions as amended by the final rule.

Most of the provisions of the final rule will take effect 12 months after publication in the Federal Register. The provisions relating to successors in interest and the provisions relating to periodic statements for borrowers in bankruptcy will take effect 18 months after publication.

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System has ordered Goldman Sachs Group to pay a $36.3 million civil money penalty for its unauthorized use and disclosure of confidential supervisory information, and to implement an enhanced program to ensure the proper use of confidential supervisory information. Additionally, the Board announced that it is instituting enforcement proceedings against Joseph Jiampietro, a former managing director at Goldman Sachs, seeking to impose a fine and permanently bar him from the banking industry stemming from his and his subordinates' unauthorized use and disclosure of confidential supervisory information.

The firm's activities previously resulted in the Federal Reserve's November 2015 permanent ban from banking of another former Goldman Sachs employee, and a fine of $50 million imposed by the New York Department of Financial Services in October 2015.

See "Goldman Sachs fined for disclosing confidential info," in our Penalties pages, for further details.

The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has added an individual and an entity to its Specially Designated Nationals List. See our OFAC Update for identity information.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has outlined consumer protection principles to guide mortgage servicers, investors, government housing agencies, and policymakers as they develop new foreclosure relief solutions. The Bureau’s action comes as the Department of Treasury’s Home Affordable Modification Program, a foreclosure relief program put in place in response to the financial crisis, is nearing its expiration date. The CFPB’s proposed principles are meant to inform the discussion of potential options to help prevent avoidable foreclosures. The principles promote:

• Accessibility: Consumers should easily be able to obtain and use information about loss mitigation options, and how to apply for those options.
• Affordability: Repayment plans and mortgage loan modifications should generally be designed to produce a payment and loan structure that is affordable for consumers.
• Sustainability: Loss mitigation options used for home retention should be designed to provide affordability throughout the remaining or extended loan term.
• Transparency: Consumers should get clear, concise information about the decisions servicers make.

The Bureau's principles don't establish legal requirements, but are instead intended to complement ongoing discussions amount industry, consumer groups and policymakers.