Top Story Compliance Related

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has posted an article in Spanish and English on the recent action taken by the Bureau and the Justice Department that would require BancorpSouth Bank to pay millions to harmed consumers. The article describes how undercover testers were used to document disparate treatment afforded African-American and white consumers. For more information see “BancorpSouth pays $10.6 million for mortgage discrimination,” in our Penalties section.

The FDIC has issued FIL-45-2016 on changes the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) has approved to the Consolidated Reports of Condition and Income (Call Report), as well as certain new and revised data items and instructional revisions. Subject to approval by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, these Call Report revisions will take effect September 30, 2016, or March 31, 2017.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has released a list of Community Reinvestment Act evaluations received by 19 national banks and federal savings associations. The ratings became public during the month of June 2016. One institution was rated outstanding and 18 were rated satisfactory.

The Social Security Administration has posted a notice in today's Federal Register that for fiscal year 2017, which begins October 1, 2016, the transaction fee for SSA's Consent Based Social Security Number Verification (CBSV) service will be reduced from the current fee of $1.40 to $1.00 per SSN verification. The one-time non-refundable enrollment fee of $5,000 will remain unchanged. The CBSV service was first announced in a notice at 72 FR 45079 on August 10, 2007. A User Guide for the CBSV service is available on the ssa.gov website.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has designated top officials of the North Korean regime, including North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, ten other individuals, and five entities, for their ties to North Korea’s notorious abuses of human rights. As a result, any property or interest in property of those designated by OFAC within U.S. jurisdiction is frozen. Additionally, transactions by U.S. persons involving the designated persons are generally prohibited. See our OFAC Update for more information.

The fifth article in the Bureau Blog series on auto loans, “Don’t get taken for a ride: protect yourself from an auto loan you can’t afford,” has been posted. Consumers are warned to:

• Be prepared before shopping for an auto loan
• Know what they can negotiate
• Avoid long-term loans if possible
• Review the loan contract before signing

The FDIC has issued a list of 49 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 April 2016. Three banks received an outstanding rating, forty-three were rated satisfactory, two were rated needs to improve, and one was rated substantial non-compliance.

OFAC has announced that Alcon Laboratories, Inc., Fort Worth, Texas, Alcon Pharmaceuticals Ltd., Fribourg, Switzerland, and Alcon Management, SA, Geneva, Switzerland (collectively, “Alcon”) have agreed to settle potential civil liability with OFAC in the amount of $7,617,150 for apparent violations of the Iranian Transactions and Sudanese Sanctions Regulations. An OFAC investigation found Alcon violated sanctions regulations on 513 occasions when it engaged in the sale and exportation of medical end-use surgical and pharmaceutical products from the United States to distributors located in Iran and Sudan without OFAC authorization.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Blog announces the designation of July as Military Consumer Protection Month. This annual event was first launched in 2013 as Military Consumer Protection Day by the Federal Trade Commission as a way to raise awareness about identity theft crimes impacting service members, but now it’s become a national month-long campaign supported by more than 50 partners. Servicemembers are reminded to review the CFPB's servicemember resources for more information.

The FDIC has issued FIL-44-2016 announcing the approval by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) of revisions to the Call Report that will take effect September 30, 2016, and March 31, 2017. These Call Report revisions were proposed by the three federal banking agencies, under the auspices of the FFIEC, in September 2015. The proposed revisions included certain burden-reducing changes, several new and revised Call Report data items, and a number of instructional clarifications. After considering the comments received on the proposal, the FFIEC and the agencies are proceeding with most of the proposed reporting changes, with some modifications. The U.S. Office of Management and Budget must approve the revisions to the Call Report before they can be implemented.