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The OCC has announced it has entered into a Formal Agreement with Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.

The Formal Agreement identifies deficiencies relating to the bank’s financial crimes risk management practices and anti-money laundering internal controls in several areas including suspicious activity and currency transaction reporting, customer due diligence, and the bank’s customer identification and beneficial ownership programs.

The agreement requires the bank to take comprehensive corrective actions to enhance its Bank Secrecy Act/anti-money laundering and U.S. sanctions compliance programs.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency yesterday released an online risk analysis tool that provides geographic estimates for physical risks from various types of natural disasters as well as nationwide data on housing and the mortgage market.

The tool — known as the Mortgage Loan and Natural Disaster Dashboard— is intended to give property owners, community leaders, financial institutions, policymakers, and other stakeholders better insight into which areas of the country are most likely to incur greater damages from hurricanes, flooding, wildfires, and other types of natural hazards. Users can combine FHFA’s Public Use Database (PUDB) with data on previous disasters and other analysis from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). They can identify areas of the country with elevated disaster risk based on several factors, and which of those areas have concentrations of properties financed with loans acquired by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Home Loan Banks.

The dashboard utilizes data from three publicly available sources. The PUDB provides a geographic breakdown of loans acquired by FHFA’s regulated entities. FEMA’s National Risk Index identifies communities most at risk for 18 types of natural hazards. The third source, FHFA’s Duty to Serve High-Needs Rural Areas data, pinpoints rural areas in the country that are characterized by a high concentration of poverty and substandard housing conditions.

The data on mortgages were updated as of 2022 and the data on past natural disasters reflected in the online tool were updated as of 2023, while the Census tracts were drawn from the 2020 U.S. Census. Dashboard users can view nationwide mortgage data at the Census-tract level overlaid with expected annual damages for 18 different types of natural disasters.

Today is the closing day for comments on the CFPB's proposed amendments to Regulation X to streamline existing requirements when mortgage borrowers seek payment assistance in times of distress, add safeguards when borrowers seek help, and revise existing requirements with respect to borrower assistance. The proposed rule would also require loan servicers to provide certain communications in languages other than English, such as when a borrower is seeking payment assistance with their mortgage. The proposed rule, if finalized, would increase the likelihood that investors and borrowers can avert the costs of avoidable foreclosure.

The FDIC has reported that Call Reports from 44,539 FDIC-insured commercial banks and savings institutions reported aggregate net income of $71.5 billion in second quarter 2024, an increase of $7.3 billion (11.4 percent) from the prior quarter. A decline in noninterest expense and one-time gains on equity security transactions contributed to the quarterly increase. These and other financial results for second quarter 2024 are included in the FDIC’s latest Quarterly Banking Profile released on Thursday.

The CFPB has released its annual report to Congress summarizing the Bureau's activities to administer the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) in 2023 as the primary federal regulator of the consumer debt collection industry. The report also includes activities related to the debt collection industry that were conducted by the Federal Trade Commission in 2023 and highlights consumer protection issues in medical and rental debt collection.

The Federal Reserve Board has announced it is seeking public input around the operational practices of the discount window, which provides short-term credit for banks and credit unions. Feedback gathered through this process will be used by the Board and the Reserve Banks, which administer the discount window, to further improve the efficiency and ease of access to discount window and intraday credit.

The request for information seeks input on Federal Reserve operational practices, including: the collection of legal documentation; the process for pledging and withdrawing collateral; the process for requesting, receiving, and repaying discount window loans; the extension of intraday credit; and Reserve Bank communication practices related to the discount window and intraday credit.

The comment period will close 90 days after the request for information is published in the Federal Register.

Publication and comment period update: Published at 89 fr 73415 on 9/10/2024, with a 90-day comment period ending 12/09/2024.

The Federal Reserve Board has announced it has issued enforcement actions against two banks.

• First Interstate Bank, Billings, Montana, was assessed a $70,000 civil money penalty for a pattern or practice of violations of Regulation H, 12 C.F.R. § 208.25, which implements the requirements of the National Flood Insurance Act.
• United Texas Bank, Dallas, Texas, received a consent cease and desist order issued jointly by the Federal Reserve Board and the Texas Department of Banking after a May 2023 examination identified deficiencies in its BSA/AML compliance program.
  

The Federal Reserve Board's archive of CRA evaluation reports include ten that were made public in August 2024. Eight of the ten evaluated banks received Satisfactory ratings. One, in Greenwich, Connecticut, received a Needs to Improve. And one bank, Central Savings Bank, Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan, received an Outstanding rating on its evaluation.

The FDIC has released its September 2024 list of FDIC-supervised financial institutions whose CRA evaluations were recently made public. Of the 54 institutions listed, two banks — one based in Utah, the other in Pennsylvania — received "Needs to Improve" ratings. Satisfactory ratings were issued to the other 52 institutions.

The OCC has released CRA evaluations for 17 national banks and federal savings associations whose evaluations became public in August. Ten of the evaluations are rated Satisfactory. We congratulate seven institutions for receiving evaluations with an Outstanding rating:

• Bank of Bridger, National Association, Bridger, MT
• (The) Citizens National Bank of Meridian, Meridian, MS
• Farmers National Bank, Phillipsburg, KS
• Home National Bank, Racine, OH
• Malaga Bank, F.S.B., Palos Verdes Peninsula, CA
• (The) Security National Bank of Sioux City, Iowa, Sioux City, IA
• Universal Bank, West Covina, CA