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Yesterday, Acting Comptroller of the Currency Keith A. Noreika discussed online lending and responsible innovation at the 2017 Online Lending Policy Summit. His remarks shared his perspective on the opportunities and challenges facing online lenders and efforts to promote economic opportunity.

The Appraisal Subcommittee of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council has published [82 FR 44493] a final rule to implement collection and transmission of appraisal management company (AMC) annual registry fees pursuant to section 1473 of the Dodd-Frank Act to be applied by State appraiser certifying and licensing agencies that elect to register and supervise AMCs, pursuant to 12 U.S.C. 3353 and the regulations promulgated thereunder. The rule will be effective November 24, 2017.

The Bureau Blog features stories received from servicemembers about problems with debt collections practices and complaints.

OCC Bulletin 2017-28, issued Friday, is a reminder of the earlier announcement by the OCC, FRB, and FDIC seeking comment on a proposed rule that would revise their regulations implementing the Community Reinvestment Act. The proposed rule would amend the CRA regulations' definitions of "home mortgage loan" and "consumer loan" to conform to recent changes made by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to Regulation C, which implements the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA). The proposed rule would also amend the CRA public file content requirements for consistency with Regulation C, make technical amendments to remove cross references related to the proposed amended definitions, and remove an obsolete reference to the Neighborhood Stabilization Program. Comments on the proposal are due by October 27, 2017.

The Department of the Treasury has announced that President Trump has issued a new Executive Order imposing additional sanctions on North Korea. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control issued new and updated FAQs, along with a new General License 10 and an updated License 3A.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency has reported that U.S. house prices rose in July, up 0.2 percent from the previous month, according to the agency's seasonally adjusted monthly House Price Index (HPI). The FHFA monthly HPI is calculated using home sales price information from mortgages sold to, or guaranteed by, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. From July 2016 to July 2017, house prices were up 6.3 percent.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has announced the release of disaster assistance to storm victims on Puerto Rico and in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The National Credit Union Administration has announced that 56 federally insured credit unions will receive awards totaling $39.5 million from the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund.

FinCEN has announced it has issued Advisory FIN-2017-A006 warning financial institutions of widespread public corruption in Venezuela and the methods Venezuelan senior political figures and their associates may use to move and hide proceeds of their corruption. The advisory also describes a number of financial red flags to assist in identifying and reporting suspicious activity that may be indicative of corruption.

In addition to background information on corruption among Venezuelan officials and on sanctions actions taken by OFAC, the Advisory includes suggested "red flags" that financial institutions should be alert for:

• Transactions involving Venezuelan government contracts that are directed to personal accounts.
• Transactions involving Venezuelan government contracts that are directed to companies that operate in an unrelated line of business (e.g., payments for construction projects directed to textile merchants).
• Transactions involving Venezuelan government contracts that originate with, or are directed to, entities that are shell corporations, general “trading companies,” or companies that lack a general business purpose.
• Documentation corroborating transactions involving Venezuelan government contracts (e.g., invoices) that include charges at substantially higher prices than market rates or that include overly simple documentation or lack traditional details (e.g., valuations for goods and services). Venezuelan officials who receive preferential access to U.S. dollars at the more favorable, official exchange rate may exploit this multi-tier exchange rate system for profit.
• Payments involving Venezuelan government contracts that originate from non-official Venezuelan accounts, particularly accounts located in jurisdictions outside of Venezuela (e.g., Panama or the Caribbean).
• Payments involving Venezuelan government contracts that originate from third parties that are not official Venezuelan government entities (e.g., shell companies).
• Cash deposits instead of wire transfers in the accounts of companies with Venezuelan government contracts.
• Transactions for the purchase of real estate—primarily in the South Florida and Houston, Texas regions—involving current or former Venezuelan government officials, family members or associates that is not commensurate with their official salaries.
• Corrupt Venezuelan government officials seeking to abuse a U.S. or foreign bank’s wealth management units by using complex financial transactions to move and hide corruption proceeds.

The Federal Reserve Board has issued the Federal Open Market Committee statement, the economic projections and projection materials from the September FOMC meeting.