Top Story Lending Related

The Social Security Administration has posted a notice in today's Federal Register that for fiscal year 2017, which begins October 1, 2016, the transaction fee for SSA's Consent Based Social Security Number Verification (CBSV) service will be reduced from the current fee of $1.40 to $1.00 per SSN verification. The one-time non-refundable enrollment fee of $5,000 will remain unchanged. The CBSV service was first announced in a notice at 72 FR 45079 on August 10, 2007. A User Guide for the CBSV service is available on the ssa.gov website.

The fifth article in the Bureau Blog series on auto loans, “Don’t get taken for a ride: protect yourself from an auto loan you can’t afford,” has been posted. Consumers are warned to:

• Be prepared before shopping for an auto loan
• Know what they can negotiate
• Avoid long-term loans if possible
• Review the loan contract before signing

The FDIC has issued a list of 49 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 April 2016. Three banks received an outstanding rating, forty-three were rated satisfactory, two were rated needs to improve, and one was rated substantial non-compliance.

The OCC has released the OCC Mortgage Metrics Report for the first quarter of 2016. The report showed 94.9 percent of mortgages included in the report were current and performing at the end of the quarter, compared with 94.2 percent a year earlier. It also showed that foreclosure activity has declined. Reporting servicers initiated 58,921 new foreclosures during the first quarter of 2016, a 29.1 percent decrease from a year earlier.

The Federal Reserve, FDIC, OCC and NCUA have jointly issued a report to Congress on the effect of capital rules on mortgage servicing assets. The report is required by Section 634 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2016.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has announced awards of more than $5 million to 42 local public housing authorities across the country that are working aggressively to end veteran homelessness. HUD is awarding additional funds to help these housing authorities administer a joint program with HUD and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) which provides permanent homes and needed services to veterans experiencing long-term, chronic homelessness.

The CFPB has announced the release of a report that its supervisory actions in the first four months of the year uncovered illegal activities in auto finance and payments that led to approximately $24.5 million in restitution to more than 257,000 consumers.

The FFIEC has announced the 2016 geocoding system has been updated with the 2016 Census demographic data based on the 2006 - 2010 five year estimate American Community Survey (ACS) and the historical census data for years 1990 – 2007 are now available.

In remarks at the community Development Corporation of Long Island's Annual Lenders Forum, Comptroller Curry discussed efforts to promote community revitalization through responsibly innovative funding and other assistance to support rehabilitation of homes in distressed communities.

The results of the June 2016 senior credit officer opinion survey of dealer financing terms (SCOOS) have been released. The SCOOS collected qualitative information on changes over the previous three months in credit terms and conditions in securities financing and over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives markets. In addition to the core questions, the survey included a set of special questions about the use of synthetic prime brokerage (PB) by hedge fund clients to provide levered exposure to assets. The 20 institutions participating in the survey account for almost all dealer financing of dollar-denominated securities to nondealers and are the most active intermediaries in OTC derivatives markets. The survey was conducted during the period between May 17, 2016, and May 31, 2016. The core questions asked about changes between March 2016 and May 2016.