Top Story Lending Related

The OCC has issued a news release announcing new enforcement actions taken against national banks, federal savings associations, and individuals currently and formerly affiliated with national banks and federal savings associations.

• A savings and loan association in Pascagoula, Mississippi, was ordered to pay a civil money penalty (CMP) of $35,000 to the National Flood Insurance Program for a pattern or practice of violations of the Flood Act and its implementing regulations relating to the requirement to purchase flood insurance when available and to the forced placement of flood insurance.
• Three former officials of a failed Texas bank were ordered to pay CMPs totaling $203,000; two of those officials were issued prohibition orders.
• The former vice president and head bookkeeper of a Lebanon, Kentucky, bank was assessed a $5,000 CMP and issued an order of prohibition for concealing a shortfall in the bank's cashier's check account and for making unauthorized transfers from customer accounts to the cashier's check account in further efforts to conceal the shortfall.
• The former head teller of Minnesota bank was issued an order of prohibition, having been found to have misappropriated approximately $81,501 from customers' accounts at the bank and to have made false entries into bank records (she made full restitution, plus interest).
• The former regional president of a Meridian, Mississippi, bank was issued a prohibition order for obtaining a loan by forging the name of a bank customer, resulting in the charge-off of $72,000 (some of which has been repaid).

The CFPB has published a Federal Register notice [82 FR 53481] announcing that the ceiling on allowable charges assessed by credit reporting agencies for making a disclosure to a consumer under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) will remain unchanged at $12.00, effective for 2018.

The CFPB has announced it has filed a lawsuit against Think Finance for its role in deceiving consumers into repaying loans that were not legally owed. The CFPB complaint alleges that Think Finance illegally collects on loans that are void under the laws of 17 states governing interest rate caps or the licensing of lenders; made deceptive demands; and illegally took money from consumers’ bank accounts for debts that were not legally owed. Think Finance, based in Addison, Texas, is an online provider of software technology, analytics, loan servicing, and marketing services. The CFPB seeks to recoup relief for harmed consumers and impose a penalty.

FDIC FIL-59-2107 announces a teleconference to discuss small business resources and research pertinent to community banks, including the Money Smart for Small Businesses financial education program; the FDIC's Small Business Lending Survey; and Community Reinvestment Act consideration for small business lending, services, and investments. The teleconference is scheduled for December 12, 2017, from 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. EST.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has released its Performance and Accountability Report, which details FHFA's activities as regulator of the Federal Home Loan Bank System and as regulator and conservator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac during fiscal year 2017. For the ninth consecutive year, FHFA received an unmodified audit opinion on its FY 2017 financial statements from the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development yesterday released the Federal Housing Administration's 2017 Annual Report to Congress on the economic condition of the FHA’s Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund (MMI Fund). At the end FY 2017, the MMI Fund had a total economic net worth of $25.6 billion and a capital ratio that remains above the statutory minimum for a third straight year.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau published in this morning's Federal Register a notice and request for comment proposing a new information collection, "Debt Collection Quantitative Disclosure Testing." Comments are due by December 14, 2017. The survey will explore consumer comprehension and decision making in response to debt collection disclosure forms. The survey will oversample respondents who have had experience with debt collection in the past.

The FFIEC has updated two fields in the 2017 Census Data: the FFIEC Estimated MSA/MD non-MSA/MD Median Family Income and Estimated Tract Median Family Income. As a result, these data fields have been updated in the 2017 Census Data Products and Geocoding System.

The State of Oklahoma has filed an amicus curiae brief with the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas, in support of the defendants in Consumer Financial Protection Bureau vs. Golden Valley Lending, Inc., at al, according to a report in Ballard Spahr, LLP's Consumer Finance Monitor. The Bureau's complaint against four online tribal lenders was filed in April in the Northern District of Illinois and subsequently transferred to the Kansas District. The suit claims that the lenders engaged in unfair, deceptive and abusive acts or practices in violation of the Consumer Financial Protection Act by attempting to collect loans that were void or uncollectible under state law due to interest rates exceeding state usury limits. The suit also alleges that the lenders failed to disclose the APR in advertisements and in response to telephone inquiries, in violation of the Truth in Lending Act.

Oklahoma's brief supports the lenders' claims that they are immune from suit under the CFPA and TILA as "arms of the tribe," that the Bureau can't enforce state law, and the loans are subject to tribal, rather than state, laws.

The CFPB has published in the Federal Register for Monday, November 13, 2017 (no Federal Register was published today), a notice that the Bureau is updating its list of companies that offer existing credit card customers free access to a credit score, and a request for responses from the industry to be used in publishing the updated list. Comments on the notice are due by January 12, 2018.

The Bureau also published a companion notice and request for information encouraging comments from the public to inform the Bureau on the experience consumers are having with access to free credit scores and the experience of companies, and nonprofits, offering their customers and the general public free access to their credit scores. Comments are due by February 12, 2018.