Top Story Lending Related

The FHFA has announced that it has extended, from February 20, 2018, to March 30, 2018, the deadline for interested parties to provide input on potential changes to the credit score requirements of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. FHFA is seeking input on all aspects of a potential change from the current Classic FICO requirement, including feedback on the operational and competition considerations of continuing to use a single credit score model or allowing the use of more than one credit score model.

In a memo to staff released this week, Mick Mulvaney, acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, transferred members of the Bureau's Office of Fair Lending and Equal Opportunity into his office and ended the Office's separate enforcement authority, according to Consumer Reports. A Bureau spokesman said the move was made to "gain efficiency and consistency without sacrificing effectiveness." Critics of the move have suggested that the reorganization will reduce the effectiveness of the CFPB's fair lending enforcement efforts.

HUD has announced the award of more than $1.5 billion to help Puerto Rico recover from hurricanes Irma and Maria. The recovery funds are provided through HUD’s Community Development Block Grant- Disaster Recovery Program and will support long-term recovery of seriously damaged housing and local businesses in Puerto Rico. HUD relied upon data from FEMA and the SBA to determine the extent of unmet housing and small business needs in the areas most affected by the disasters. HUD's analysis found thousands of middle- and lower-income homeowners and renters who experienced serious damage to their residences and who were not adequately insured (or uninsured) for their losses. Similarly, businesses suffered serious damage that is not adequately covered by insurance or other resources. The grant is designed to help meet needs not being met by private insurance or other sources of federal assistance.

The CFPB has updated its Resources for HMDA filers page, adding a 2018 LAR Formatting Tool, and making minor updates to the 2018 Filing Instructions. The 2018 LAR Formatting Tool is designed to assist financial institutions create an electronic file that can be submitted to the HMDA platform. It can be used for data collected in 2018 and reported next year.

The Bureau also updated its Reportable HMDA Data: A regulatory and reporting overview reference chart. If you previously downloaded the 2018 Filing Instructions and/or the reference chart, we recommend you replace them with the newer versions.

An en banc panel of the U. S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit today handed down a 7 - 3 decision to reverse the October 2016 ruling in PHH Corporation, et al. v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that would have allowed the president to dismiss the director of the CFPB at will, rather than only for "inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office," as provided in the Dodd-Frank Act. Today's 250-page decision was based, in part, on a 1935 Supreme Court decision that sustained the constitutionality of the independent Federal Trade Commission to protect the agency's leadership from at-will removal by the president.

Today's decision, however, reinstated the October 2016 opinion of a three-judge panel that stayed and remanded to the Bureau for further proceedings then-Director Cordray's order in the PHH case interpreting section 8(c)(2) of RESPA, ignoring RESPA's three-year statute of limitations with regard to the Bureau's administrative enforcement proceeding, and raising the disgorgement recommendation of an administrative law judge from about $6.4 million to more than $109 million. That puts PHH Corporation's fate and Cordray's RESPA interpretations back into the hands of the Bureau -- albeit with some guidance from the Court of Appeals and without Cordray -- for reconsideration.

The CFPB has posted an article regarding its 2018 list of consumer reporting companies. Included with the list is information on requesting a consumer report, tips on specialty reports, information on how the reporting companies verify a consumer's identity before providing a report, a guide to obtaining a free credit report and other useful information.

The OCC has announced its 2018 schedule of workshops for directors of national community banks and federal savings associations. This year's schedule includes these topics:

• Building Blocks for Directors and Senior Management: Keys to Success
• Risk Governance – Improving Director Effectiveness
• Compliance Risk: What Directors Need to Know
• Credit Risk: Directors Can Make a Difference
• Operational Risk – Navigating Rapid Changes

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has released the FHFA Strategic Plan: Fiscal Years 2018-2022, which reflects the Agency’s priorities as regulator of the Federal Home Loan Banks (FHLBanks) and as regulator and conservator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the Enterprises). The plan sets forth three goals for the agency:

• Ensure safe and sound regulated entities
• Ensure liquidity, stability and access in housing finance
• Manage the Enterprises’ ongoing conservatorships

The agenda for the NMLS Ombudsman Meeting on February 9 in conjunction with the 2018 NMLS Annual Conference has been posted on the NMLS Resource Center.

Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control has announced the designation of 21 individuals and 9 entities under four Executive Orders related to Russia and Ukraine, including three individuals and two entities related to Russia’s transfer of four turbines made by a Russian-German joint venture to Crimea. OFAC also identified 12 subsidiaries that are owned 50 percent or more by previously sanctioned Russian companies to provide additional information to assist the private sector with sanctions compliance. See BOL's OFAC Update for identification information.