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The Federal Reserve Board has issued a consent order to cease and desist and assessed a civil money penalty against Customers Bank of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. The order addresses the participation of the bank and its agent, Higher One, Inc. of New Haven, Connecticut, in deceptive practices in violation of of the Federal Trade Commission Act. Higher One provided institutions of higher education with financial aid disbursement services for students through, among other things, a deposit account and debit card product known as the "OneAccount." The deceptive practices employed by Higher One, under Customers Bank's oversight for approximately four months earned the bank a $960,000 penalty. For more information, see our December 6, 2016, penalty page.

The NCUA has announced that credit unions will have more flexibility to use the National Credit Union Administration’s Consumer Assistance Complaint portal with the expansion of portal access by an additional authorized credit union staff member. The portal allows credit unions to correspond with NCUA’s Consumer Assistance Center about complaints concerning their institutions. An FAQ was also updated to help credit unions register or request an additional user be added to user profiles.

The NCUA Board has published a final rule in today's Federal Register comprehensively amending its chartering and field of membership rules at 12 CFR Part 701 to maximize access to federal credit union services to the extent permitted by law, and to organize the rules in a more efficient framework. The amendments will implement changes in policy affecting: the definition of a local community, a rural district, and an underserved area; the chartering and expansion of a multiple common bond credit union; the expansion of a single common bond credit union that serves a trade, industry or profession; and the process for applying to charter, or to expand, a federal credit union. The amendments will be effective 60 days after publication, on February 6, 2017.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia has posted the latest edition of Consumer Compliance Outlook. This edition features articles on subpart B of Regulation E on Remittance Transfers and the updated interagency questions and answers regarding Community Reinvestment.

The NCUA has reported that insured shares and deposits in federally insured credit unions grew, for the first time, to more than $1 trillion and membership reached 106.2 million in the third quarter of 2016. Total loans outstanding at federally insured credit unions reached $847.1 billion at the end of the third quarter of 2016, an increase of 10.1 percent from third quarter 2015. Total investments by federally insured credit unions stood at $266.3 billion at the end of the third quarter, down 1.4 percent from the third quarter of 2015. The delinquency rate at federally insured credit unions was 77 basis points in the third quarter, down 1 basis point from 2015.

In response to North Korea’s September 2016 nuclear test, ongoing prohibited development of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), and continued violations of United Nations Security Council resolutions (UNSCRs), the U.S. Department of the Treasury has announced that its Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has designated 16 entities and seven individuals for their ties to the Government of North Korea or its nuclear and weapons proliferation efforts and identified 16 aircraft blocked as property of a designated entity. The targets include individuals and companies from North Korea's transportation, mining, energy and financial services industries. As a result of this 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. Additionally, U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions involving the designated persons and listed aircraft.

For additional information on these actions, see our OFAC Update.

The OCC has issued its first quarter 2017 CRA evaluation schedule.

The FDIC has issued a list of 47 state nonmember banks recently evaluated for compliance with the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). Six were rated outstanding, 40 satisfactory, and one needs to improve.

The CFPB has announced on the Bureau Blog the fall semiannual update of its rulemaking agenda. The items listed included:

• Know Before You Owe (TRID) mortgage disclosure rule (reviewing comments on proposed revisions)
• HMDA (working on proposed fine-tuning amendments to 2018 HMDA rule)
• Larger participants and non-depository lender registration (ongoing)
• Arbitration (reviewing comments on proposed rule)
• Payday, auto title, and similar lending products (reviewing comments on proposed rule)
• Debt collection (potential proposed rule for debt collectors soon; ongoing study on need for rule for first-party collectors
• Overdraft services (under research)
• Reporting under ECOA of info on credit applications from women-owned, minority-owned and small businesses (outreach and research)

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has published two final rules identifying communities that are scheduled for suspension from the National Flood Insurance Program.

• A rule at 81 FR 87467, with a suspension date of December 22, 2016, affects communities in Polk County, Florida; McKean County, Pennsylvania; Cheatham, Dickson and Wiliamson counties in Tennessee; Sedgwick and Summer counties in Kansas; and Carson City, Nevada.
• A rule at 81 FR 87470, with a suspension date of December 8, 2016, affects communities in Walton County, Georgia; Brown County, Indiana; Benton and Linn counties in Oregon; and Richland and Vernon counties in Wisconsin.