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HUD and the Rockefeller Foundation have announced the winners of the $1 billion National Disaster Resilience Competition (NDRC). HUD will provide funding for resilient housing and infrastructure projects to states and communities that were impacted by major disasters between 2011 and 2013. The NDRC was developed in response to requests from state, local, and tribal leaders seeking to build with resilience and better prepare their communities for the impacts of climate change, following the model of the Rebuild by Design Competition, and the recommendations of the Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force. The NDRC was designed to promote risk assessment, stakeholder engagement, and resilience planning in communities where the risks of disaster are projected to increase substantially due to climate change.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) took action on January 21, 2016, against Herbies Auto Sales, a buy-here pay-here used car dealer, for abusive financing schemes, hiding auto finance charges and misleading consumers. Herbies will pay $700,000 in restitution to harmed consumers, with a suspended civil penalty of $100,000. See our Penalty Page entry for details.

HUD and the Census Bureau have released residential construction statistics for December 2015. Privately owned housing units authorized by building permits in December were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,232,000. This is 3.9 percent below the revised November rate and 14.4 percent above December 2014. Single-family authorizations in December were at a rate of 740,000; 1.8 percent above the revised November figure. Authorizations of units in buildings with five units or more were at a rate of 455,000 in December. Privately owned housing starts in December were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,149,000, 2.5 percent below the revised November estimate and 6.4 percent above December 2014. Single-family housing starts in December were at a rate of 768,000; 3.3 percent below the revised November figure. The December rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 365,000. Privately owned housing completions in December were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,013,000. 5.6 percent above the revised November estimate and is 7.9 percent above December 2014. Single-family housing completions in December were at a rate of 696,000; 8.8 percent above the revised November rate.

NCUA Chairman Matz has announced she will host her fifth annual joint webinar with CFPB Director Cordray on February 9, beginning at 3 p.m. ET.

The Federal Reserve Board has published the January 2016 Beige Book, which summarizes the current economic conditions in each Federal Reserve District based on interviews with key business contacts, economists, market experts, and other sources. Nine of the 12 Reserve Bank districts cited modest to moderate growth, with the New York and Kansas City districts reporting virtually flat activity. Growth was strongest in the Boston, Atlanta and San Francisco districts.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has published in today's Federal Register two final rules identifying communities where the sale of flood insurance has been authorized under the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) that are scheduled for suspension for noncompliance with the floodplain management requirements of the program.

• To be suspended on February 3, 2016: Listed communities in the states of Arizona, Tennessee and Wisconsin
• To be suspended on February 17, 2016: Listed communities in the states of Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has announced the filing of charges against three California home loan modification companies and nine of their agents, charging them with violating the Fair Housing Act by targeting Hispanic homeowners for illegal or unfair loan audit and loan modification assistance because of their national origin. HUD's charge of discrimination alleges that The Home Loan Auditors, LLC; Century Law Center, LLC; SOE Assistance Center, Inc., and their agents lured struggling Hispanic homeowners into paying thousands of dollars for home loan audits that the homeowners never received and modification services that had little, if any, value. The companies allegedly exploited the homeowners' limited English proficiency and used deceptive marketing in Spanish, at times making false representations, in order to mislead them. Ultimately, the homeowners lost their properties due to foreclosure.

The CFPB has added a "Construction loan fact sheet" to its TRID rule implementation page, to provide an overview of how the integrated disclosure rule may be applied to construction loans.

• Construction loan fact sheet

The FFIEC and Freddie Mac have announced that, effective January 1, 2016, Freddie Mac no longer publishes the Primary Mortgage Market Survey results for the 1-year ARM. The latest APOR data relies on the 1-year ARM survey rate released December 31, 2015. The FFIEC will provide more information in the near future.

An amended complaint has been filed in federal court by the Federal Trade Commission and the State of Florida charging a payment processing business with credit card laundering, illegally assisting, and facilitating a nationwide debt relief telemarketing scheme that allegedly bilked millions of dollars from consumers. The complaint alleges CardReady LLC, an independent sales organization, and its executives, Brandon A. Becker, James F. Berland and Andrew S. Padnick, arranged for at least 26 shell merchant accounts to be used to process credit card payments for a debt relief operation, E.M Systems & Services LLC. The agencies originally sued E.M. Systems in June, 2015.