Top Story Lending Related

The October 2017 Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey (SCOOS) on Bank Lending Practices has been released by the Federal Reserve. The survey addresses changes in the standards and terms on, and demand for, bank loans to businesses and households over the past three months. Responses were received from 72 domestic banks and 23 U.S. branches and agencies of foreign banks.

The CFPB has posted tips for service members with student debt.

A Southern California-based auto dealership group will pay $1.4 million to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it violated a 2014 administrative order prohibiting it from misrepresenting how much consumers could pay to finance or lease a vehicle.

The CFPB sent out an email Friday announcing the beta launch of its new HMDA Platform, to provide financial institutions an opportunity to become familiar with the HMDA Platform and, in particular, determine whether their sample LAR data complies with the reporting requirements outlined in the Filing Instructions Guide for HMDA data collected in 2017. The beta version of the platform will allow financial institutions to establish test log-in credentials; upload sample HMDA files and perform validation on their data; receive edit reports; allow users to confirm their test data submission; and conclude the test HMDA filing process.

The FDIC has released a list of 74 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 August 2017. The list includes eight banks (one each in Iowa, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, California and Nevada, and two in New York) that received "outstanding" ratings, and one Texas bank that received a "needs to improve" rating. The other 65 banks received "satisfactory" ratings.

Registration for the 2018 NMLS Annual Conference and Training, February 6–9 in New Orleans, is open. The NMLS has set up a conference website with a schedule at-a-glance, venue information and fee schedule.

The CFBB has announced that approximately 14,000 African-American and Hispanic borrowers who were unlawfully charged higher interest or higher broker fees on mortgage loans with Provident Funding Associates were mailed checks compensating them for their harm. The total of those payments is about $9 million. In May 2015, the CFPB and the Department of Justice filed a complaint alleging that Provident Provident charged approximately 14,000 African-American and Hispanic borrowers more on mortgage loans than similarly situated non-Hispanic white borrowers between 2006 and 2011.

In its announcement, the Bureau warned about scams that could develop around the settlement payments.

During his remarks delivered yesterday at the National Association of Affordable Home Lenders Annual Conference in Washington, Acting Comptroller of the Currency Noreika described guidance finalized by the OCC in August that gives national banks and federal savings associations more flexibility to offer rehabilitation financing in communities with depressed home values.

The Federal Reserve Board has issued a consent enforcement order to an Indiana bank, directing that the bank pay the National Flood Insurance Program a civil money penalty of $23,000. See our penalty page for additional information.

The Department of the Treasury announced yesterday afternoon that FinCEN has issued a final rule under Section 311 of the USA PATRIOT Act that severs Bank of Dandong, a Chinese bank that acts as a conduit for illicit North Korean financial activity, from the U.S. financial system. FinCEN also issued an advisory to further alert financial institutions to schemes commonly used by North Korea to evade U.S. and United Nations (UN) sanctions, launder funds, and finance the North Korean regime’s weapons programs. The rule severing Bank of Dandong's access to the U.S. financial system will be effective 30 days after publication in the Federal Register.

UPDATE: FinCEN scheduled the rule for publication on November 8, 2017, which will make the rule's effective date Friday, December 8.