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The FDIC has released results of its annual survey of branch office deposits for all FDIC-insured institutions as of June 30, 2024. The FDIC’s Summary of Deposits (SOD) provides deposit totals for each of the more than 76,000 domestic offices operated by more than 4,500 FDIC-insured commercial and savings banks, savings associations, and U.S. branches of foreign banks.

The SOD includes historical data going back to 1994 that can be analyzed using online reports, tables, and downloads. SOD users can locate bank offices in a particular geographic area and create custom market share reports for areas such as state, county, and metropolitan statistical area. Market share reports allow users to see market growth and market presence for specific institutions.

FDIC’s SOD page includes the latest enhancements to the FDIC’s BankFind Suite, a resource for users to understand financial details and trends among FDIC-insured banks. The modernized SOD page in BankFind is available to preview now. The legacy Summary of Deposits will be discontinued by the end of 2024 and users will be automatically redirected to the BankFind Suite.

FDIC FIL-65-2024, issued Friday, provides guidance to financial institutions and facilitates recovery in areas of Louisiana — currently listing Ascension, Assumption, Lafourche, St. Charles, St. James, St. John the Baptist, St. Mary and Terrebonne Parishes — affected by Hurricane Francine from September 9–12, 2024.

The CFPB has announced a proposed rule with a narrow amendment to disclosure requirements for certain international money transfers, or remittances. The proposed amendment would provide consumers clearer information about the types of inquiries that may be better handled by their remittance company before contacting the CFPB or the relevant state regulator.

The proposal would amend certain disclosures to clarify that consumers should contact their remittance company for issues specific to their money transfer. The proposal can potentially save consumers time by resolving their inquiries more quickly. Additionally, it may reduce the number of inquiries sent to states and the CFPB that would be more appropriately addressed initially by the providers themselves.

Comments will be accepted through November 4, 2024.

The NCUA has announced that its Board of Directors yesterday approved a final rule incorporating its Second Chance Interpretive Ruling and Policy Statement and the Fair Hiring in Banking Act into its regulations, and a final rule that would simplify share insurance regulations by establishing a “trust accounts” category, aligning the Share Insurance Fund coverage for federally insured credit union members’ trust accounts with the coverage provided by the FDIC’s coverage of trust accounts at federally insured banks.

FinCEN has announced its release of a Beneficial Ownership Reporting Outreach and Education Toolkit that can be used in efforts to educate small business owners about new beneficial ownership reporting requirements mandated by the bipartisan Corporate Transparency Act.

The toolkit contains templates and sample content that has been structured to allow private, public, and non-profit organizations to share and amplify this important information. The toolkit includes general background on the reporting requirements, as well as templates for newsletters, websites, and emails; sample social media posts and images; and information on how to contact FinCEN.

The OCC has announced enforcement actions recently taken against OCC-supervised institutions—

• A formal agreement with First Federal Savings Bank of Kentucky, Frankfort, Kentucky, for unsafe or unsound practices, including those related to strategic planning and budgeting, succession planning, liquidity risk management, and interest rate risk management
• A previously announced formal agreement with Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., Sioux Falls, South Dakota, for deficiencies related to the bank’s financial crimes risk management practices and anti-money laundering internal controls in several areas
• An order of prohibition against Natasha A. Aikens, former lead associate at a Brooklyn, New York, branch of JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., Columbus, Ohio, for engaging in a scheme to steal bank funds and falsely reporting the receipt of counterfeit bills in the bank’s general ledger, resulting in losses to the bank of at least $201,000

The Treasury Department has reported that OFAC has designated a network of five entities and one individual—based in Russia and in the Russia-occupied Georgian region of South Ossetia—that have enabled and supported ongoing efforts to establish illicit payment mechanisms between Russia and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). Yesterday’s action holds accountable parties that have assisted DPRK and Russian sanctions evasion and demonstrates Treasury’s commitment to exposing and disrupting networks that facilitate the funding of the DPRK’s weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and ballistic missile programs and support Russia’s war against Ukraine.

For a link to the names and identification information of the designated parties, see yesterday's BankersOnline OFAC Update.

Yesterday, the Treasury Department reported that OFAC has designated 12 individuals in connection with the Iranian regime’s ongoing, violent repression of the Iranian people, both within Iran’s borders and abroad. These designations target members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), officials of Iran’s Prisons Organization, and those responsible for lethal operations overseas.

For the names and identification information of the designated parties, see yesterday's BankersOnline OFAC Update.

The Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday announced charges against a dozen municipal advisors for failures by the firms and their personnel to maintain and preserve certain electronic communications. The firms agreed to pay combined civil penalties of more than $1.3 million to settle the SEC’s charges.

According to the SEC, the 12 firms admitted the facts set forth in their respective SEC orders, acknowledged that their conduct violated recordkeeping provisions of the federal securities laws, have begun implementing improvements to their compliance policies and procedures to address these violations, and agreed to pay the following civil penalties:

• Acacia Financial Group Inc. — $52,000
• Caine Mitter and Associates Inc. — $94,000
• cfX Inc. — $42,000
• CSG Advisors Inc. — $40,000
• Kaufman Hall & Associates LLC, together with Ponder & Company — $324,000
• Montague DeRose & Associates LLC — $40,000
• PFM Financial Advisors LLC — $250,000
• Phoenix Advisors LLC — $40,000
• Public Resources Advisory Group Inc. — $184,000
• Specialized Public Finance Inc. — $250,000
• Zions Public Finance Inc. — $47,000

Yesterday, the FDIC's Board of Directors approved a final Statement of Policy on Bank Merger Transactions (Final SOP). The Final SOP addresses the scope of transactions subject to FDIC approval, the FDIC’s process for evaluating merger applications, and the principles that guide the FDIC’s consideration of the applicable statutory factors as set forth in the Bank Merger Act.

With respect to the statutory factors, the Final SOP:

• Confirms that the FDIC’s evaluation of a merger’s competitive effects may take into account concentrations beyond deposits, including small business or residential loan originations;
• Clarifies that the proposed merger should result in less financial risk than the risk posed by the institutions on a standalone basis;
• Elaborates on the FDIC’s expectation that a merger will enable the resulting institution to better meet the convenience and needs of the community to be served;
• Applies additional scrutiny to the evaluation of financial stability for transactions resulting in an institution with $100 billion or more in total assets; and
• Communicates the FDIC’s expectation to hold public hearings for mergers resulting in an institution with over $50 billion in total assets.

The Final SOP supersedes the existing Statement of Policy, which was last updated in 2008. The updates approved by the FDIC Board yesterday account for the significant changes that have occurred in the banking industry and financial system over the last several decades. The Final SOP refines, and in some cases, broadens the description of the analytical considerations for each statutory factor.