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The Department of Housing and Urban Development has published [82 FR 22344] in this morning's Federal Register an invitation for public comment to assist in identifying existing regulations that may be outdated, ineffective, or excessively burdensome, in accordance with Executive Orders 13771, "Reducing Regulation and Controlling Regulatory Costs," and 13777, "Enforcing the Regulatory Reform Agenda." Comments will be received through June 14, 2017.

The OCC will host two workshops at the Inn at Opryland in Nashville, Tennessee, June 20-21, for directors of institutions supervised by the OCC.

• The Credit Risk workshop on June 20 focuses on credit risk within the loan portfolio, such as identifying trends and recognizing problems. The workshop also covers the roles of the board and management, how to stay informed of changes in credit risk, and how to effect change.
• The Operational Risk workshop on June 21 focuses on the key components of operational risk—people, processes and systems. The workshop also covers governance, third-party risk, vendor management, and cybersecurity.

Each workshop is limited to 35 participants.

The Federal Open Market Committee has posted its tentative meeting schedule for 2018:

• January 30-31 (Tuesday-Wednesday)
• March 20-21 (Tuesday-Wednesday)
• May 1-2 (Tuesday-Wednesday)
• June 12-13 (Tuesday-Wednesday)
• July 31-August 1 (Tuesday-Wednesday)
• September 25-26 (Tuesday-Wednesday)
• November 7-8 (Wednesday-Thursday)
• December 18-19 (Tuesday-Wednesday)
• January 29-30, 2019 (Tuesday-Wednesday)

Melvin Watt, Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) issued a statement before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, on “The Status of the Housing Finance System After Nine Years of Conservatorship.”

The Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS) has launched a new website dedicated to the NMLS 2.0 initiative to provide updates, engagement opportunities, and progress on the new NMLS.

The Bank of Lake Mills, Lake Mills, Wisconsin, and two institution-affiliated parties (IAPs) have executed settlements with the FDIC for unfair and deceptive practices that violated Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act. As part of the settlement, the bank and the IAPs stipulated to the issuance of respective Orders for Restitution and Orders to Pay Civil Money Penalties The FDIC Orders require restitution of approximately $3 million to harmed consumers, and assess civil money penalties totaling $242,000. The Orders require a restitution plan that covers all past and present borrowers who, from 2013 to 2015, received loans originated by the bank through the IAPs, and were harmed by the practices identified as being unfair or deceptive. For further information, see "Bank of Lake Mills," in our Penalty pages.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has publicized an agreement between Wescom Central Credit Union, based in Pasadena, California, and a married couple, resolving allegations the company denied the couple's mortgage loan application because the wife was on maternity leave. Refusing to provide a mortgage loan or mortgage insurance because a woman is pregnant or on family leave violates the Fair Housing Act's prohibition against sex and familial status discrimination, which includes discrimination against individuals who have or are expecting a child.

The Department of Defense has posted a notice on its MLA website that its MLA verification service will be unavailable on Saturday, May 13, due to planned system maintenance.

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.