Top Story Compliance Related

The FDIC has announced its release of a list of state nonmember banks recently evaluated for compliance with the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) that received their evaluation ratings in March 2018. Seventy-six of the banks received ratings of Satisfactory. Two banks -- one in Tustin, California, and one in Laredo, Texas -- received Outstanding ratings, and two banks, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and Salem, Oregon, were rated Needs to Improve.

The FDIC has issued FIL-31-2018 on the previously announced proposed amendment to the Volcker Rule. The agency also issued FIL-30-2018 further explaining the approval of a final rule issued jointly with the OCC to shorten the securities transaction settlement cycle.

OFAC announced it has issued General License 16 authorizing U.S. persons to engage in specified transactions related to winding down or maintaining business involving EN+ Group PLC, JSC EuroSibEnergo, or any entity in which EN+ Group PLC or JSC EuroSibEnergo owns, directly or indirectly, a 50 percent or greater interest, until October 23, 2018.

In an insignificant non-event on Friday, the OCC and FDIC issued a joint press release announcing their adoption of a final rule to shorten the standard settlement cycle for securities purchased or sold by the institutions they supervise. The final rule will require banks to settle most securities transactions within the number of business days in the standard settlement cycle followed by registered broker dealers in the United States unless otherwise agreed to by the parties at the time of the transaction. The effective date of the amendments is October 1, 2018.

The OCC and FDIC understand that, consistent with the industry's transition to T+2, OCC Bulletin 2017-22, and FDIC FIL 32-2017, banks are already complying with a two-business-day settlement standard.

UPDATE: The amendments to OCC regulations at 12 CFR Parts 12 and 151 and the FDIC regulations at 12 CFR Part 344 are scheduled for publication on June 7, 2018.

The Bureau has posted its latest Complaint Snapshot, which examines complaint trends, with a focused look at complaints about debt collection.

The Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) Plenary reports it has agreed to remove Haiti from its special monitoring process given the forthcoming 4th Round Mutual Evaluation of Haiti. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines made significant progress in addressing the deficiencies identified in the 3rd round Mutual Evaluation and have successfully exited the follow-up process.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged an employee of a prominent investment bank with repeatedly using his access to highly confidential information in order to place illicit and profitable trades in advance of deals on which the bank was providing investment banking advisory services. According to the SEC's complaint, Woojae “Steve” Jung, a vice president of investment banking who worked in the bank’s San Francisco and New York offices, used sensitive client information in order to trade in the securities of 12 different companies prior to the announcement of market-moving events. The Commission alleges that between 2015 and 2017, Jung used an account held in the name of a friend living in South Korea to place these illegal trades and generate profits of approximately $140,000. As alleged in the complaint, by using his friend’s brokerage account, Jung attempted to evade detection by skirting his employer’s requirements that he pre-clear his trades and that he use an approved brokerage firm that would have reported the trading to his employer.

The defendants in two student loan debt relief cases have agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission claims that they charged consumers illegal upfront fees and falsely promised to help reduce or forgive student loan debt burdens. The settlements with Strategic Student Solutions and Bloom Law Group are part of a coordinated federal-state law enforcement initiative targeting deceptive student loan debt relief scam announced by the FTC in October 2017, called "Operation Game of Loans."

OFAC has made changes to an existing listing regarding the Al-Nusrah Front for the Peoples of Levant. Details of the change are in our OFAC Update.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated two Iranian entities for committing serious human rights abuses on behalf of the Government of Iran, as well as three leaders of one of these entities. Additionally, OFAC designated an entity that has operated information or communications technology that facilitates monitoring or tracking that could assist or enable serious human rights abuses by or on behalf of the Government of Iran. Finally, OFAC designated two individuals for engaging in censorship activities that prohibit, limit, or penalize the exercise of freedom of expression or assembly by citizens of Iran, and one individual for acting for or on behalf of an entity engaged in such censorship activities. For identity information on the affected entities and individuals, and three updated OFAC listings, see our OFAC Update.