Top Story Compliance Related

Oregon Lithoprint Inc., owner of the News-Register, a twice-weekly community newspaper based in Yamhill, Oregon, has agreed to settle FTC charges that it invited a competitor to collude in an arrangement to divide the market for placement of foreclosure notices.

• Settlement agreement

The Federal Reserve Board has issued a reminder that as of December 31, 2017, it does not offer print versions or subscriptions for its Commercial Bank Examination Manual. The January 2018 update of the manual can be accessed online or by section.

• PDF of entire manual
• Manual by sections

The CFPB has issued a Request for Information (RFI) about the Bureau's rulemaking processes. This is the seventh in a series of RFIs announced as part of Acting Director Mick Mulvaney's "call for evidence" to ensure the Bureau is fulfilling its proper and appropriate functions to best protect consumers. The next RFI in the series will address the Bureau's adopted rules, and will be issued next week. The CFPB will begin accepting comments once the RFI is printed in the Federal Register, which is expected to occur on March 9. The RFI will be open for comment for 90 days, ending June 7, 2018.

OFAC has identified two individuals as specially designated global terrorists. For identification details, see our OFAC Update.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has announced a final rule to help mortgage servicers communicate with certain borrowers facing bankruptcy. The final rule gives mortgage servicers more latitude in providing periodic statements to consumers entering or exiting bankruptcy, as required by the Bureau’s 2016 mortgage servicing rule. The rule will become effective April 19, 2018, along with other servicing rule amendments affecting consumers in bankruptcy and successors in interest that go into effect that day.

The changes to section 1026.41(e)(5)(iv) made by this final rule have been incorporated into BankersOnline's Regulations pages.

UPDATE: Published at 83 FR 10553 on 3/11/2018.

The FDIC has issued a Consent Order to pay a $2 million civil money penalty and to make approximately $1.3 million in restitution payments to about 243,000 consumers harmed by unfair and deceptive acts and practices involving the assessing of transaction fees greater than those disclosed by the bank. The FDIC also found that the bank violated the Electronic Funds Transfer Act, the Truth in Savings Act, and the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act. See our Penalty Page for additional information.

Yesterday, the Office of Foreign Assets Control increased its pressure on major Mexican heroin traffickers by targeting individuals and companies close to the new leadership of the Ruelas Torres drug trafficking organization (Ruelas Torres DTO). Treasury imposed additional sanctions on eight Mexican individuals and eight Mexican companies linked to the Sinaloa-based criminal organization, which has been led by Joel Efren Ruelas Avila since the 2017 death of his father Jose Luis Ruelas Torres. OFAC acted under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (Kingpin Act). As a result of Tuesday's action, U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions or otherwise dealing with these individuals and companies, and any assets they may have under U.S. jurisdiction are frozen. For identification information on the individuals and entities OFAC designated on Tuesday, and on three other Kingpin Act listings that OFAC updated, see BankersOnline's OFAC Update.

Penalties for violations of the Kingpin Act range from civil penalties of up to $1,437,153 per violation to more severe criminal penalties. Criminal penalties for corporate officers may include up to 30 years in prison and fines of up to $5 million. Criminal fines for corporations may reach $10 million. Other individuals could face up to 10 years in prison and fines pursuant to the Title 18 of the United States Code for criminal violations of the Kingpin Act.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has announced that it has issued an Order charging the New York Stock Exchange and two affiliated exchanges with regulatory failures in connection with multiple episodes, including several disruptive market events. The charges arose from five separate investigations and include the first-ever charged violation of Regulation SCI. The Commission adopted Reg SCI to strengthen the technology infrastructure and integrity of the U.S. securities markets, and today charged two NYSE exchanges with violating Reg SCI’s business continuity and disaster recovery requirement. In settlement, the exchanges agreed to pay a $14 million penalty.

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures, the Financial Action Task Force and the Financial Stability Board have announced the Correspondent Banking Due Diligence Questionnaire recently published by the Wolfsberg Group, as one of the industry initiatives that will help to address the decline in the number of correspondent banking relationships by facilitating due diligence processes. The questionnaire aims to standardize the collection of information that correspondent banks ask from other banks when opening and maintaining these relationships, such as their ownership, the products and services they offer and their programs for Anti-Money Laundering, Countering the Financing of Terrorism as well as compliance with sanction regimes and Anti-Bribery and Corruption programs. The questionnaire is also part of a cooperative effort by the public and private sectors to recognize Know-Your-Customer utilities as an effective and efficient tool to support due diligence processes.

The FDIC has published the Winter 2018 issue of the FDIC Consumer News, featuring tips on protecting assets. The issued includes information regarding:

• Five things to know about safe deposit boxes and home safes for protecting valuables.
• Criminals who place hidden recording devices at or near automated teller machines (ATMs) and retailer checkout registers.
• How new standards for credit reporting may help consumers improve credit scores and qualify for loans under more favorable terms.