Top Story Lending Related

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has reopened and extended the input period to September 1, 2017, to allow interested parties more time to consider additional information on issues facing qualified mortgage borrowers with Limited English Proficiency (LEP) throughout the mortgage life cycle process, including mortgage lending and servicing.

FHFA announced on May 25, 2017 that it was requesting input on ways to improve access to credit for qualified mortgage borrowers with limited English proficiency. The input period closed on July 31, 2017 but is being reopened and extended beginning today.

The FDIC has released a list of state nonmember banks recently evaluated for compliance with the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). The list covers evaluation ratings that the FDIC assigned to institutions in May 2017. Of the 68 institutions listed, four received an "outstanding" rating, 62 received a "satisfactory" rating, and two were rated "needs improvement."

The NCUA is hosting its third and final round for credit unions to qualify to use the streamlined application for certification as community development financial institutions, from August 7 through September 1.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has announced it is making $38 million available to fight housing discrimination through the Department’s Fair Housing Initiatives Program (FHIP). The grants offered through three FHIP funding notices will support a variety of critical fair housing activities, including fair housing testing in the rental and sales market, public education efforts, capacity building, and education and outreach activities.

A joint release yesterday by the Federal Reserve Board, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency reports that risk in the portfolio of large syndicated bank loans declined slightly but remains elevated, according to the Shared National Credit (SNC) Program Review released by the agencies. The high level of credit risk in the SNC portfolio stems primarily from distressed borrowers in the oil and gas (O&G) sector and other industry sector borrowers exhibiting excessive leverage. The review also found that credit risk management practices at most large agent banks continued to improve, consistent with the 2013 Interagency Guidance on Leveraged Lending.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has released a list of 26 Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) performance evaluations received by national banks, federal savings associations, and insured federal branches of foreign banks that became public in July. Three institutions were rated outstanding, and 23 were rated satisfactory.

The Federal Reserve Board has updated its E.2 Terms of Business Lending data with information from a May 1–5 survey of all commercial banks.

U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Ben Carson announced yesterday an additional $178.5 million to help hard-hit areas in Florida, North and South Carolina, Texas and West Virginia recover from severe flooding that occurred in 2015 and 2016. The grants are provided through HUD’s Community Development Block Grant – Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) Program. Combined with CDBG-DR grants already allocated, HUD’s investment to these areas totals nearly $947 million.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency will host two workshops in Baltimore on September 12-13, for directors of financial institutions supervised by the OCC. The Compliance Risk workshop on September 12 focuses on the critical elements of an effective compliance risk management program. The Operational Risk workshop on September 13 focuses on the key components of operational risk—people, processes, and systems.

The OCC has issued a statement by Acting Comptroller of the Currency Keith Noreika regarding the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) final rule on arbitration agreements. He expressed concerns that the rule may adversely affect the institutions within the federal banking system and their customers. He said that the rule "may have unintended consequences for banking customers in the form of decreased availability of products and services, increased related costs, fewer options to remedy consumer concerns, and delayed resolution of consumer issues."

Noreika expressed his hope that Congress will use its Congressional Review Act authority "to preserve effective alternatives for consumers to resolve their disputes without lengthy and costly litigation and to reduce the 'piling on' of legal and regulatory burden" that Noreika discussed in his June 22, 2017, testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.