Top Story Lending Related

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has posted a Bureau Blog article and a press release announcing an inquiry into ways to gather and use new and existing information to identify the financing needs of small businesses, especially those owned by women and minorities. The Bureau will publish a Request for Information asking for public feedback to help the Bureau better understand how to obtain more consistent and complete information on those credit needs. UPDATE: The CFPB's Request for Information was published at 82 FR 22318 in the Federal Register on May 15, 2017, with a comment period ending on July 14, 2017.

UPDATE: On June 8, 2017, Director Cordray, in a presentation to a meeting of the Bureau's Consumer Advisory Board, announced that the Bureau has agreed to a 60-day extension of the comment period, to September 12, 2017.

The CFPB also released a white paper reviewing the evidence available to the Bureau concerning the small business lending landscape, as well as prepared remarks of Bureau Director Richard Cordray to be delivered at today's CFPB field hearing on small business lending, scheduled for 11 a.m. PDT in Los Angeles.

The Federal Reserve has released the results of the April 2017 senior loan office opinion survey on bank lending practices (SLOOS). The survey covers up to eighty large domestic banks and twenty-four U.S. branches and agencies of foreign banks. The Federal Reserve generally conducts the survey quarterly, timing it so that results are available for the January/February, April/May, August, and October/November meetings of the Federal Open Market Committee.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has extended the public input period on its proposed Evaluation Guidance for the Duty to Serve program. The input period is now extended from May 15 to June 7, 2017. The proposed Evaluation Guidance, released January 18, communicates FHFA's expectations regarding the process for developing the Enterprises' Underserved Markets Plans as well as the process by which FHFA will evaluate the Enterprises' achievements under their Plans each year. In addition, FHFA also is requesting public input on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's (the Enterprises) proposed Underserved Markets Plans under the Duty to Serve program, which were released yesterday.

• Fannie Mae’s plan
• Freddie Mac’s plan
  

The CFPB has released its plan to assess the effectiveness of the RESPA mortgage servicing rule. A request has been posted on the Bureau Blog page seeking comments on the plan, to suggest sources of data, and generally to provide other information that would help with the assessment. Comments will be due 60 days after the plan is published in the Federal Register.

UPDATE: The Bureau's Request for Information is scheduled for publication on May 11, 2017 at https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2017-09361. The deadline for comments will be Monday, July 10, 2017.

The FFIEC has posted a preview of the field changes for the upcoming 2017 Census File based on the 2015 ACS 5-year estimates.

The FDIC has posted the list of 58 state nonmember banks recently evaluated for compliance with the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) and the ratings they received. Four received an "outstanding" rating and 54 were rated "satisfactory."

The Federal Reserve has issued a statement announcing the Federal Open Market Committee has decided to maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 3/4 to 1 percent.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has published [82 FR 20832] in this morning's Federal Register a rule suspending, effective May 2, 2017, the Town of North Carrollton, Mississippi (Community number 280028), from the National Flood Insurance Program, for noncompliance with the floodplain management requirements of the program.

The OCC has released a list of Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) performance evaluations that became public in April 2017. Of the 18 institutions listed this month, one is rated "outstanding," 16 are rated "satisfactory" and one is rated "needs to improve."

The Federal Reserve has posted the February 2017 G.20 Finance Companies report of owned and managed receivables outstanding and auto loans: terms of credit.