Top Story Compliance Related

The White House announced yesterday afternoon that the president has signed H.J.Res. 111, overturning the CFPB's Arbitration Rule, into law. The Rule will now not take effect and a similar rule cannot be promulgated without specific authorizing legislation.

Acting Comptroller of the Currency Keith Noreika issued a statement following the president’s signing of the resolution.

OCC Bulletin 2017-48, issued yesterday, announces updates of the OCC's policies and procedures regarding bank enforcement actions and related matters, which are changing effective on December 1, 2017. The updates are reflected in the “Bank Supervision Process,” “Community Bank Supervision,” “Federal Branches and Agencies Supervision,” and “Large Bank Supervision” booklets of the Comptroller’s Handbook. Bulletin 2017-49 was also issued, announcing the revision of the “Subsidiaries and Equity Investments” booklet.

OFAC has issued amended Ukraine- /Russia-Related Directive 4 and published new related FAQs. These actions were taken under Title II of the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA). OFAC also published FAQs related to key provisions of CAATSA.

In connection with its publication of amended Global Terrorism Sanctions regulations, OFAC has posted an update adding the SDGT sanctions tag to 41 existing SDN listings. See our OFAC Update for identification details.

FinCEN has issued Advisory FIN-2017-A007 to warn financial institutions about the potential for fraudulent transactions in the wake of disasters, including recent hurricanes and wildfires. The advisory includes descriptions of potential disaster-related frauds, including benefits fraud, charities fraud and cyber-related fraud. FinCEN also requested that any financial institution submitting a suspicious activity report of fraud that is disaster-related include the keyword "Disaster-related Fraud" in both the narrative and in field 31z (Fraud-Other) of the report.

The OCC, FRB, and the FDIC have published a proposed rule that would simplify certain aspects of the agencies' capital rule at 12 CFR Parts 3, 217 and 324. The majority of the proposed simplifications would apply solely to banking organizations that are not subject to the advanced approaches capital rule (the advanced approaches capital rule generally applies to banks that are part of banking organizations with $250 billion or more in total consolidated assets or $10 billion or more in total consolidated foreign financial exposure). Bulletin 2017-47 has been issued by the OCC regarding the proposal. Comments are due by December 26, 2017.

​The Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has announced it is amending the Global Terrorism Sanctions Regulations, 31 C.F.R. part 594 (GTSR), to apply the blocking provisions of the GTSR to foreign persons that have been identified by OFAC as officials, agents, or affiliates of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). This amendment takes effect upon publication in the Federal Register on Tuesday, October 31, 2017.

OCC Bulletin 2017-46, issued October 27, announces revisions of the OCC’s Approach to Federal Branch and Agency Supervision and the Federal Branches and Agencies booklet of the Comptroller’s Licensing Manual.

The FDIC released on Friday a list of orders of administrative enforcement actions taken against banks and individuals in September. There was a total of 23 orders, including one order issued in August. The administrative enforcement actions in those orders consisted of eight consent orders; five Section 19 orders; one civil money penalty; three terminations of insurance; five terminations of consent orders; and one termination of a restitution order.

The civil money penalty of $12,450 was assessed against a Wisconsin bank for violations of the National Flood Insurance Act, the Flood Disaster Protection Act and related regulations.

The consent orders were all issued to institution-affiliated parties of one Pennsylvania bank after the FDIC determined they had engaged or participated in unsafe or unsound banking practices with respect to the supervision and oversight of the Bank's mortgage banking division.

The Federal Reserve Board has issued SR 17-12 with timing expectations for the completion of safety-and-soundness examination and inspection reports for regional banking organizations.