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The CFPB has announced the release of a report that shows complaints by student loan borrowers have driven actions that have produced more than $750 million in relief for student loan borrowers and strengthened the student loan repayment process for millions more. These changes include automatic student loan interest-rate reductions for eligible servicemembers, more protections around federal student loan repayment relief, and the elimination of surprise “auto defaults” from most new private student loan contracts. The report also shows that in the last year the CFPB received more than 20,000 complaints from student loan borrowers, who report that widespread student loan servicing problems persist.

• Annual report of the CFPB Student Loan Ombudsman

The Federal Trade Commission, along with 11 states and the District of Columbia, today announced “Operation Game of Loans,” the first coordinated federal-state law enforcement initiative targeting deceptive student loan debt relief scams. This nationwide crackdown encompasses 36 actions by the FTC and state attorneys general against scammers alleged to have used deception and false promises of relief to take more than $95 million in illegal upfront fees from American consumers over a number of years.

The OCC has released Activities Permissible for National Banks and Federal Savings Associations, Cumulative, which updates the list of permissible activities to reflect applicable precedent for national banks, streamlines certain entries for readability, and includes applicable interpretive letters and corporate decisions issued by the OCC affecting federal savings associations. OCC precedent remains applicable until rescinded, superseded, or revised.

The CFPB has updated its HMDA (Regulation C) Small Entity Compliance Guide and other HMDA Rule informational documents on its 2018 HMDA Rule implementation page to incorporate the most recent changes to the 2018 HMDA rules.

The CFPB has filed a complaint in federal court against two companies operating under the name “FDAA,” a service provider, and their owners for falsely presenting FDAA as being affiliated with the federal government. The CFPB also alleges that FDAA’s so-called “debt validation” programs violated the law by falsely promising to eliminate consumers’ debts and improve their credit scores in exchange for thousands of dollars in advance fees. The CFPB’s lawsuit seeks to end these deceptive practices, obtain redress for harmed consumers, and impose civil money penalties.

The OCC has issued Bulletin 2017-40 to make public Policies and Procedures Manual 5004-43, which sets the OCC’s policy and framework for determining the effect of evidence of discriminatory or other illegal credit practice on the CRA rating of a national bank, federal savings association, or federal branch.

On August 15, 2017, the Small Business Administration published a request for information seeking input from the public on identifying which of the Agency’s regulations should be repealed, replaced or modified because they are obsolete, unnecessary, ineffective, or burdensome. That request established a 60-day comment period closing on October 16, 2017. The SBA has published in today's Federal Register a notice extending the deadline for comments on the SBA's regulations from October 16, 2017, to November 15, 2017.

The Federal Reserve Board has announced its issuance of two orders for civil money penalties totaling $19,000 to banks in Louisiana and Montana, for patterns or practices of violations of the National Flood Insurance Act and Regulation H.

As a part of the October 2017 NMLS update release, the NMLS site will undergo system maintenance on Saturday, October 14. NMLS and Consumer Access will be unavailable from 6:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. EDT.

To support implementation of the recently issued 2017 TILA-RESPA Rule, the CFPB has published an updated Small Entity Compliance Guide (Version 5) for the TRID rule. The updated guide is available on the Bureau's TRID Rule implementation page.