Top Story Compliance Related

OFAC has issued a save-the-date invitation for its 2016 Fall Symposium to be held in Washington, D.C. on December 7. The event will provide a comprehensive review of current U.S. economic sanctions. It will include presentations on OFAC regulations, as well as targeted reviews of sanctions concerns for new and updated OFAC- administered programs. In addition to formal presentations by key personnel, OFAC staff will be available throughout the day to answer individual questions from participants.

Treasury has announced that National Oilwell Varco, Inc., a Delaware corporation, and its subsidiaries Dreco Energy Services, Ltd. ("Dreco") and NOV Elmar ("Elmar") have agreed to pay $5,976,028 to settle their potential civil liability for apparent violations of the Cuban Assets Control Regulations, the Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations, and the Sudanese Sanctions Regulations.

• Settlement agreement

HUD has announced it has issued formal guidance to Public Housing Authorities and others participating in the Department’s Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) on how to meet their fair housing, civil rights and relocation obligations during all phases of RAD’s conversion process.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has released its third semi-annual "Snapshot of servicemember complaints," which reviews and analyzes 18,000 complaints submitted to the agency related to mortgage refinancing.

The Federal Trade Commission has filed a complaint in federal court charging that, in numerous instances, prepaid card company NetSpend Corporation (NetSpend) deceived consumers, many of whom do not have bank accounts, about access to funds deposited on defendants’ debit cards. According to the complaint, NetSpend tells consumers that its reloadable prepaid debit cards offer an alternative way to store and immediately access their funds. But once people have loaded funds onto the cards, many of them find they cannot access their money, either because NetSpend denies or delays activation of the card, or because it blocks consumers from using it, the FTC alleges. The FTC seeks to return consumers’ funds and ensure that NetSpend provides them with promised access to their funds in the future.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has acted to disrupt al-Nusrah Front’s military, recruitment, and financing operations. Specifically, OFAC designated four key al-Nusrah Front leaders – Abdallah Muhammad Bin-Sulayman al-Muhaysini, Jamal Husayn Zayniyah, Abdul Jashari, and Ashraf Ahmad Fari al-Allak – pursuant to Executive Order 13224, which targets terrorists and those providing support to terrorists or acts of terrorism. These designations were taken in coordination with the U.S. Department of State, which today named Jabhat Fath al Sham as an alias of al-Nusrah Front – al-Qa’ida’s affiliate in Syria. As a result of today’s action, all property and interests in property of these designated individuals subject to U.S. jurisdiction are blocked, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them. See our OFAC Update for additional information.

The FDIC has issued a notice of the November 15, 2016, meeting of its Board. On the agenda are approval of a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking removing former OTS rule Part 390 Subpart I and Revising FDIC Rule Part 343 (Consumer Protections in the Sale of Insurance) and approval of a Final Rule on Recordkeeping for Timely Deposit Insurance Determination.

The OCC has issued Bulletin 2016-40 announcing the issuance by the OCC, FRB, and FDIC of the host state loan-to-deposit (LTD) ratios that they will use to determine compliance with section 109 of the Riegle–Neal Interstate Banking and Branching Efficiency Act of 1994 (IBBEA).

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has charged housing providers in Georgia, Louisiana, and New Hampshire with violating the Fair Housing Act by discriminating against families with children. HUD has also announced charges against landlords in South Florida alleging discrimination against tenants with disabilities and separate agreements with landlords in Nevada and Massachusetts resolving similar charges.

The NCUA Board has published at 81 FR 78748 a proposal to amend its chartering and field of membership rules at 12 CFR Part 701 to give applicants for community charter approval, expansion or conversion the option, in lieu of a presumptive community, to submit a narrative to establish common interests or interaction among residents of the area it proposes to serve, thus qualifying the area as a well-defined local community. The Board also proposes to increase up to 10 million the population limit on a community consisting of a statistical area or a portion thereof. Comments on the proposal are due by December 9, 2016.