Top Story Compliance Related

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has asked former Wells Fargo Bank employees whose securities registrations were terminated to contact FINRA if they have concerns about the notice filed by Wells Fargo regarding their termination. FINRA is responding to recent news reports that have highlighted several former Wells Fargo bank employees who believe that they were terminated from the bank for reporting or refusing to engage in allegedly fraudulent account-opening activities. Those reports have indicated that a subset of the individuals who were also registered with FINRA to conduct securities activities have raised concerns that they did not receive a copy of their Form U5 termination notice within 30 days of being terminated as required by FINRA rules, or that their Form U5 contained inaccurate or incomplete comments related to the reason for the termination.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) took action on Wednesday to disrupt the financial and support networks of al-Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). Specifically, OFAC designated AQAP facilitators Al-Hasan Ali Ali Abkar (Abkar) and Abdallah Faysal Sadiq al-Ahdal (al-Ahdal), as well as a purported charity managed by al-Ahdal, the Rahmah Charitable Organization, pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13224, which targets terrorists and those providing support to terrorists or acts of terrorism. See our OFAC Update for further information.

The Federal Reserve Board has announced the fifteen members of its 2017 Community Advisory Council, which includes four new members. The CAC is composed of a diverse group of experts and representatives of consumer, workforce, and community development organizations and interests, including from such fields as affordable housing, economic development, labor, small business, and asset and wealth building. CAC members provide information, advice, and recommendations to the Board on relevant policy matters and emerging issues of interest.

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has released its 2016 mutual evaluation report of Switzerland’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CFT) system. The report indicates overall, Switzerland’s AML/CFT regime is technically robust and has achieved good results. It would still benefit from some improvements in order to be fully effective. The full report (241 pages) and an executive summary (11 pages) are available.

The CFPB has issued consent orders to three reverse mortgage companies — American Advisors Group, Reverse Mortgage Solutions, and Aegean Financial — for deceptive advertisements, including claiming that consumers could not lose their homes. The orders require the companies to cease deceptive advertising practices, implement systems to ensure they are complying with all laws, and pay penalties totaling $790,000. See "Reverse mortgage lenders pay for deceptive ads," in our Penalties pages, for additional information.

The FDIC has issued a notice of a meeting of its board of directors to be held on December 13, 2016.

HUD has introduced a new online tool that generates a snapshot of HUD’s investment at the community level. The Community Assessment Reporting Tool (CART), uses geospatial technology to show the wide variety of HUD investments by city, state, county, metropolitan area, or congressional district. It also provides an interactive mapping interface that allows users to explore HUD investments within their community and see property- and grant-level detail at a variety of geographies

The Federal Reserve Board has issued a consent order to cease and desist and assessed a civil money penalty against Customers Bank of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. The order addresses the participation of the bank and its agent, Higher One, Inc. of New Haven, Connecticut, in deceptive practices in violation of of the Federal Trade Commission Act. Higher One provided institutions of higher education with financial aid disbursement services for students through, among other things, a deposit account and debit card product known as the "OneAccount." The deceptive practices employed by Higher One, under Customers Bank's oversight for approximately four months earned the bank a $960,000 penalty. For more information, see our December 6, 2016, penalty page.

The NCUA has announced that credit unions will have more flexibility to use the National Credit Union Administration’s Consumer Assistance Complaint portal with the expansion of portal access by an additional authorized credit union staff member. The portal allows credit unions to correspond with NCUA’s Consumer Assistance Center about complaints concerning their institutions. An FAQ was also updated to help credit unions register or request an additional user be added to user profiles.

The NCUA Board has published a final rule in today's Federal Register comprehensively amending its chartering and field of membership rules at 12 CFR Part 701 to maximize access to federal credit union services to the extent permitted by law, and to organize the rules in a more efficient framework. The amendments will implement changes in policy affecting: the definition of a local community, a rural district, and an underserved area; the chartering and expansion of a multiple common bond credit union; the expansion of a single common bond credit union that serves a trade, industry or profession; and the process for applying to charter, or to expand, a federal credit union. The amendments will be effective 60 days after publication, on February 6, 2017.