Top Story Compliance Related

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), Federal Reserve Board, and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) have announced they have issued a final rule detailing the method that will be used to make annual inflation adjustments to the threshold for exempting small loans from special appraisal requirements. The final rule also applies the calculation method to the exemption threshold for 2017. The threshold will remain at $25,500, based on the CPI-W in effect on June 1, 2016. The final rule will be effective January 1, 2017.

UPDATE: Published at 81 FR 86250, 11/30/16

U.S. District Judge Amos Mazzant, of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, has approved a motion for a preliminary injunction filed by Nevada and 23 other states, in the case of State of Nevada, et al v. United States Department of Labor, et al. The injunction blocks implementation of the Department of Labor's revised Overtime Rule, which was scheduled to become effective on December 1, 2016. The plaintiffs' suit alleges that the Labor Department exceeded its authority in setting the payroll thresholds (and the automatic updating mechanism affecting them) triggering overtime pay.

The injunction is effective nationwide, and will remain in effect pending further order of the court, which typically means until the decision is made on the underlying case.

The Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control has added Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) designations to its Specially Designation Nationals Lists. Four individuals were added, and two designated narcotics traffickers with the Kingpin Act designation were updated to add the SDGT designation. See our OFAC Update for details.

The National Credit Union Administration has announced that, beginning with the Call Report for the quarter ending December 31, 2016, federally insured credit unions will have until the last Sunday of the month following quarter end to file Call Reports. The due dates in 2017 are January 29, April 30, July 30, and October 29. This change gives credit unions, on average, an additional seven days to file.

The OCC has issued Bulletin 2016-41 as a reminder of the FFIEC Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) published on October 26 regarding enhanced cyber risk management standards for large and interconnected entities under the jurisdiction of the OCC, Board of Governors or the FDIC. The ANPR was featured in our October 20, 2016, Top Story. Comments on the ANPR are due by January 17, 2017.

The CFPB published two documents in this morning's Federal Register:

• The final rule on Prepaid Accounts, which becomes effective October 1, 2017, as reported in our October 5 Top Story
• The Bureau's Request for Information on consumer access to financial account and account-related data, reported in a November 17 Top Story. Publication of the Request for Information began a 90-day response period, which will end on February 21, 2017.

The CFPB has filed a complaint in federal district court against Access Funding, LLC for an illegal scheme in which victims of lead-paint poisoning and others signed away future settlement payments in exchange for a significantly lower lump-sum payout. The CFPB alleges that Access Funding steered victims to receive “independent advice” from a sham advisor, an attorney who was actually paid directly by the company and provided virtually no advice, indicating to consumers that the transactions required little scrutiny. In its suit, the CFPB seeks to put an end to the company’s unlawful practices, obtain relief for the harmed consumers, and impose penalties.

• Complaint

The FDIC has issued FIL-78-2016 announcing the regulator will co-host an interagency webinar scheduled for December 1, 2016, that will focus on the Military Lending Act (MLA) regulations and the related, recently released Interpretive Rule.

Treasury has announced that its Federal Insurance Office (FIO) has released the first annual “Report on the Protection of Consumers and Access to Insurance.” The first-of-its-kind report addresses a range of consumer protection issues that are critical to the functioning of a stable and fair insurance marketplace.

The FDIC has published at 81 FR 83174 a proposal to remove subpart I of 12 CFR Part 390, the transferred OTS regulation on Consumer Protection in Sales of Insurance, and to amend 12 CFR Part 343 to consolidate its rules on that subject in a single regulation. Comments are due by January 20, 2017.