Top Story Lending Related

An article by the CFPB discusses thing to consider before using a reverse mortgage to delay collecting Social Security and a CFPB report warns that a reverse mortgage can be an expensive way to maximize Social Security benefits.

The FDIC has issued FIL-37-2017 with a series of steps intended to provide regulatory relief to financial institutions and facilitate recovery in areas of West Virginia affected by severe storms.

The CFPB has announced it has finalized a temporary increase in the HMDA HELOC reporting threshold for banks and credit unions, and made a number of clarifications, technical corrections, and minor changes to the HMDA regulation (Regulation C, 12 CFR Part 1003). Under the HMDA rules becoming effective on January 1, 2018, financial institutions would have been required to report HELOCs if they made 100 such loans in each of the previous two years. The threshold is temporarily being increased to 500 loans during 2018 and 2019 to give the Bureau time to consider whether to make a permanent adjustment. This change was proposed in mid-July (see our earlier Top Story).

The other amendments finalized by the Bureau include clarifying certain key terms, such as “temporary financing” and “automated underwriting system.” The changes will also, for example, establish transition rules for reporting certain loans purchased by financial institutions. Another change will facilitate reporting the census tract of a property, using a geocoding tool that will be provided on the Bureau’s website. These changes were initially proposed in April 2017.

• Final rule
• Updated Filing Instructions Guide for data collected in 2017
• Updated Filing Instructions Guide for data collected in or after 2018
• Updated HMDA Loan Scenarios
• Executive Summary of the August 24, 2017, changes
• UPDATE: Published 9/13/2017 at 82 FR 43088

HUD and the Census Bureau have released July 2017 statistics on new residential sales.

• New home sales—Sales of new single-family houses in July 2017 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 571,000, according to estimates released by the agencies. This is 9.4 percent below the revised June rate of 630,000, and is 8.9 percent below the July 2016 estimate of 627,000.
• Sales price—The median sales price of new houses sold in July 2017 was $313,700. The average sales price was $371,200.
• For sale inventory—The seasonally-adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of July was 276,000. This represents a supply of 5.8 months at the current sales rate.

FDIC FIL-35-2017, issued Wednesday, announced steps intended to provide regulatory relief to financial institutions and facilitate recovery in areas of Michigan affected by severe storms June 22–June 27, 2017.

The CFPB announced on Wednesday it has taken action against two American Express banking subsidiaries for discriminating against consumers in Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and other U.S. territories by providing them with credit and charge card terms that were inferior to those available in the 50 states and for discriminating against certain consumers with Spanish-language preferences. American Express has paid about $95 million in redress to approximately 222,000 consumers during the reviews undertaken by the Bureau and American Express, and the Bureau is now ordering the company to pay at least another $1 million to complete the compensation of harmed consumers.

American Express self-reported differences between its cards issued to consumers in Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa and Northern Mariana Islands, and its cards offered in the 50 U.S. states, as well as differences with respect to certain consumers with a Spanish language preference. The Bureau did not find that American Express intentionally discriminated against its customers, but rather found that the differences resulted from the company's card management structure, which involved different business units overseeing the U.S. cards and cards issued in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

No civil money penalties were imposed in the Bureau's order because American Express self-reported the violations, self-initiated remediation for harmed consumers, and fully cooperated with the Bureau's review and investigation.

• Consent order in the Matter of American Express Centurion Bank and American Express Bank, FSB.

The CFPB has posted an article announcing the release of new FFIEC Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) Examiner Transaction Testing Guidelines for institutions that report HMDA data. The Guidelines will apply to the examination of HMDA data collected beginning in 2018 and reported beginning in 2019. According to the Bureau's article, the Guidelines "represent a joint effort by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Federal Reserve Board, the National Credit Union Administration, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to provide—for the first time—uniform guidelines across all federal HMDA supervisory agencies."

The FFIEC has posted release 2 of its 2017 data entry software on its software page.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency has released its House Price Index (HPI), which indicates U.S. house prices rose 1.6 percent in the second quarter of 2017. House prices rose 6.6 percent from the second quarter of 2016 to the second quarter of 2017. FHFA's seasonally adjusted monthly index for June was up 0.1 percent from May. Significant statistics include:

• Home prices rose in 48 states and the District of Columbia between the second quarter of 2016 and the second quarter of 2017. The top five states in annual appreciation were: Washington, at 12.4 percent; Colorado at 10.4 percent; Idaho at 10.3 percent; Florida at 9.4 percent; and Utah at 9.2 percent.
• Among the 100 largest metropolitan areas in the U.S., annual price increases were greatest in the Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, WA (MSAD), where prices increased by 15.7 percent. Prices were weakest in New Haven-Milford, CT, where they rose by 0.1 percent.
• Of the nine census divisions, the Pacific division experienced the strongest increase in the second quarter, posting a 2.6 percent quarterly increase and a 8.9 percent increase since the second quarter of last year. House price appreciation was weakest in the Middle Atlantic division, where prices rose 0.8 percent from the last quarter.

Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control announced on Tuesday it has designated ten entities and six individuals in response to North Korea’s ongoing development of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), violations of United Nations (UN) Security Council Resolutions, and attempted evasion of U.S. sanctions. The new designations target third-country companies and individuals that assist already-designated persons who support North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs; deal in the North Korean energy trade; facilitate its exportation of workers; and enable sanctioned North Korean entities to access the U.S. and international financial systems.

As a result of Tuesday’s action, any property or interests in property of the designated persons in the possession or control of U.S. persons or within the United States must be blocked, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from dealing with them. For identification of the new designations, along with a number of removals from and updates to the OFAC SDN lists, see our OFAC Update.