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The FDIC has issued FIL-45-2016 on changes the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) has approved to the Consolidated Reports of Condition and Income (Call Report), as well as certain new and revised data items and instructional revisions. Subject to approval by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, these Call Report revisions will take effect September 30, 2016, or March 31, 2017.

The NCUA has announced another video installment in its economic series, featuring discussion of:

• current economic trends and how they could affect credit union income and costs
• interest rates and the outlook going forward
• examination of "Brexit," the United Kingdom’s recent decision to leave the European Union, and the implications for the United States and, potentially, for credit unions

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has posted an article in Spanish and English on the recent action taken by the Bureau and the Justice Department that would require BancorpSouth Bank to pay millions to harmed consumers. The article describes how undercover testers were used to document disparate treatment afforded African-American and white consumers. For more information see “BancorpSouth pays $10.6 million for mortgage discrimination,” in our Penalties section.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has announced $24 million in grants to assist annually more than 1,200 low-income persons living with HIV/AIDS and their families. The grants provide a combination of housing assistance and supportive services for this vulnerable population. The funding announced today is offered through HUD's Housing Opportunities for Persons With AIDS Program (HOPWA) and will renew HUD's support of 25 local programs. These local programs will use the grants to continue providing housing assistance to more than 1,200 households annually throughout the three-year grant period.

OFAC has announced that Alcon Laboratories, Inc., Fort Worth, Texas, Alcon Pharmaceuticals Ltd., Fribourg, Switzerland, and Alcon Management, SA, Geneva, Switzerland (collectively, “Alcon”) have agreed to settle potential civil liability with OFAC in the amount of $7,617,150 for apparent violations of the Iranian Transactions and Sudanese Sanctions Regulations. An OFAC investigation found Alcon violated sanctions regulations on 513 occasions when it engaged in the sale and exportation of medical end-use surgical and pharmaceutical products from the United States to distributors located in Iran and Sudan without OFAC authorization.

The FDIC has issued a list of 49 state nonmember banks recently evaluated for compliance with the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). The list covers evaluation ratings that the FDIC assigned to institutions in April 2016. Three banks received an outstanding rating, forty-three were rated satisfactory, two were rated needs to improve, and one was rated substantial non-compliance.

The fifth article in the Bureau Blog series on auto loans, “Don’t get taken for a ride: protect yourself from an auto loan you can’t afford,” has been posted. Consumers are warned to:

• Be prepared before shopping for an auto loan
• Know what they can negotiate
• Avoid long-term loans if possible
• Review the loan contract before signing

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has announced a proposal to implement recent Congressional legislation that allows financial institutions that meet certain requirements to be exempt from sending annual privacy notices to their customers. In December 2015, Congress amended the GLBA as part of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act). This amendment provides financial institutions that meet certain conditions an exemption to the requirement under the GLBA to deliver an annual privacy notice. A financial institution can use the annual notice exception if it limits its sharing of customer information so that the customer does not have the right to opt out and has not changed its privacy notice from the one previously delivered to its customer. The proposed amendment would implement this legislation. The proposal would also establish deadlines for institutions resuming annual privacy notices if their practices change and cease to qualify for the exemption.

Because the proposal would render obsolete the alternative delivery method in Regulation P section 1016.9(c)(2), the Bureau proposes to eliminate that alternative. Comments on the proposal will be accepted for 30 days following publication in the Federal Register.

• Proposed rule

Update: Published at 81 FR 44801 on July 11, 2016. Comment period ends August 10, 2016.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has announced awards of more than $5 million to 42 local public housing authorities across the country that are working aggressively to end veteran homelessness. HUD is awarding additional funds to help these housing authorities administer a joint program with HUD and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) which provides permanent homes and needed services to veterans experiencing long-term, chronic homelessness.

OFAC has announced the publication of another Kingpin Act General License authorizing certain transactions and activities that would otherwise be prohibited pursuant to the Kingpin Act. See our OFAC Update for more information.

The Federal Reserve, FDIC, OCC and NCUA have jointly issued a report to Congress on the effect of capital rules on mortgage servicing assets. The report is required by Section 634 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2016.

The Federal Reserve has issued the G.5 Foreign Exchange Rates data for June 2016.

The OCC has released the OCC Mortgage Metrics Report for the first quarter of 2016. The report showed 94.9 percent of mortgages included in the report were current and performing at the end of the quarter, compared with 94.2 percent a year earlier. It also showed that foreclosure activity has declined. Reporting servicers initiated 58,921 new foreclosures during the first quarter of 2016, a 29.1 percent decrease from a year earlier.

The FDIC has announced the retirement of Cottrell Webster as the FDIC's Ombudsman, effective June 30, 2016. Gordon Talbot, an Associate Ombudsman, is serving as Acting FDIC Ombudsman until a permanent replacement is appointed. The FDIC Office of the Ombudsman is a confidential, neutral, and independent source of information and assistance to anyone affected by the FDIC in its regulatory, resolution, receivership, or asset disposition activities.

The FDIC has issued FIL-44-2016 announcing the approval by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) of revisions to the Call Report that will take effect September 30, 2016, and March 31, 2017. These Call Report revisions were proposed by the three federal banking agencies, under the auspices of the FFIEC, in September 2015. The proposed revisions included certain burden-reducing changes, several new and revised Call Report data items, and a number of instructional clarifications. After considering the comments received on the proposal, the FFIEC and the agencies are proceeding with most of the proposed reporting changes, with some modifications. The U.S. Office of Management and Budget must approve the revisions to the Call Report before they can be implemented.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has announced that a federal grand jury returned an indictment Thursday charging six Mexican nationals for their role in a scheme to manufacture and sell counterfeit identity and immigration documents. The individuals manufactured fraudulent identification documents, including Social Security cards and alien registration receipt cards, often called “green cards.”

The video of the June 2016 open meeting of the NCUA Board meeting is now available on the agency’s website.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Blog announces the designation of July as Military Consumer Protection Month. This annual event was first launched in 2013 as Military Consumer Protection Day by the Federal Trade Commission as a way to raise awareness about identity theft crimes impacting service members, but now it’s become a national month-long campaign supported by more than 50 partners. Servicemembers are reminded to review the CFPB's servicemember resources for more information.

OFAC has added one individual and one entity to its SDN List, both with the specially designated global terrorist (SDGT) designation. It also removed several SDGT entries from the list. See our OFAC Update for more information.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has published at 81 FR 43021 in today's Federal Register an interim final rule and request for comments to amend its Rules of Practice and Procedure for National Banks (at 12 CFR Part 19) and its Rules of Practice and Procedure in Adjudicatory Proceedings for Federal Savings Associations (at 12 CFR Part 109) to publish the maximum amount, adjusted for inflation, of each civil money penalty within its jurisdiction to administer. These actions are required under the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 1990, as amended by the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015. The rule and the changes will be effective on, and comments on the interim rule are due by, August 1, 2016.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control has published at 81 FR 43070 in today's Federal Register an interim final rule with request for comments to amend its regulations for the relevant sanctions programs it administers to implement the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 1990, as amended by the Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996 and the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015. The amendments will be effective on, and comments are due by, August 1, 2016.

HUD announced yesterday that it is making a series of enhancements to the Department's Distressed Asset Stabilization Program (DASP) that would have purchasers of severely delinquent mortgages offer qualified borrowers principal reductions and protection from "payment shock." Certain families with distressed mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) may soon be eligible for a reduction of their outstanding loan amounts should their mortgages be sold through DASP. In addition, FHA's latest enhancements prohibit investors from abandoning low-value properties in high-foreclosure neighborhoods to prevent blight.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has released its first report providing information about the sale of non-performing loans (NPLs) by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the Enterprises). The Enterprise Non-Performing Loan Sales Report includes NPL sales data through May 31, 2016 and preliminary outcomes for borrowers through December 31, 2015. NPL sales reduce the number of severely delinquent loans in the Enterprises’ portfolios and the rules are subject to FHFA requirements that encourage NPL buyers to prioritize outcomes for borrowers other than foreclosure.

The results of the June 2016 senior credit officer opinion survey of dealer financing terms (SCOOS) have been released. The SCOOS collected qualitative information on changes over the previous three months in credit terms and conditions in securities financing and over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives markets. In addition to the core questions, the survey included a set of special questions about the use of synthetic prime brokerage (PB) by hedge fund clients to provide levered exposure to assets. The 20 institutions participating in the survey account for almost all dealer financing of dollar-denominated securities to nondealers and are the most active intermediaries in OTC derivatives markets. The survey was conducted during the period between May 17, 2016, and May 31, 2016. The core questions asked about changes between March 2016 and May 2016.

The Federal Reserve System has released its annual determination of the aggregate consolidated liabilities of financial companies as required by the Dodd-Frank Act. The Act prohibits a financial company from combining with another company if the resulting company's liabilities would exceed 10 percent of the aggregate consolidated liabilities of all financial companies. As of July 1, 2016, aggregate consolidated liabilities equal $21,786,571,865,000. Financial companies subject to the limit include insured depository institutions, bank holding companies, savings and loan holding companies, foreign banking organizations, companies that control insured depository institutions, and nonbank financial companies designated for Board supervision by the Financial Stability Oversight Council.

The Federal Reserve has released the list of minority owned depository institutions and their branches as of March 31, 2016.

The Federal Reserve Board has released the list as of March 31, 2016, of insured U.S. chartered commercial banks that have consolidated assets of $300 million or more, ranked by consolidated assets.

The OCC’s Quarterly Report on Bank Trading and Derivatives Activities: First Quarter 2016 has been released. Trading revenue of U.S. commercial banks and savings associations rose to $5.8 billion in the first quarter of 2016 from $4.3 billion in the fourth quarter of 2015.

In remarks at the community Development Corporation of Long Island's Annual Lenders Forum, Comptroller Curry discussed efforts to promote community revitalization through responsibly innovative funding and other assistance to support rehabilitation of homes in distressed communities.

FDIC FIL-43-2016 announces the update of the Corporation's information technology and operations risk (IT) examination (InTREx) procedures to provide a more efficient, risk-focused approach. This enhanced program also provides a cybersecurity preparedness assessment and discloses more detailed examination results using component rating.

FIL-42-2016 has been issued by the FDIC to announce the finalizing of updates to its Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) regarding identifying, accepting and reporting brokered deposits. In November 2015, the FDIC released for comment proposed updates to the FAQs that were originally issued in January 2015. After consideration of the comments received, the FDIC retained a majority of the proposed updates, with certain clarifications and new FAQs. Key updates since the FAQs were issued in January 2015 address matters related to:

• Business professionals and deposit referral programs;
• Deposits gathered though "dual hatted," "dual" and "call center" employees (as explained in the FAQs), or contractors;
• Deposits underlying government-sponsored prepaid or debit card programs;
• Whether certain nonmaturity deposits are brokered; and
• Actions an IDI should take if it holds certain brokered deposits and falls below well capitalized for PCA purposes.

The FFIEC has announced the 2016 geocoding system has been updated with the 2016 Census demographic data based on the 2006 - 2010 five year estimate American Community Survey (ACS) and the historical census data for years 1990 – 2007 are now available.

The NCUA has issued six notices of prohibition to individuals who have been convicted of crimes of dishonesty and, as a result, are prohibited from participating in the affairs of any federally insured financial institution. The individuals were former employees of:

• Southbridge Credit Union in Worcester, Massachusetts
• St. Albert the Great Federal Credit Union in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
• Fire Police City County Federal Credit Union in Fort Wayne, Indiana
• I.B.E.W. Local 816 Federal Credit Union in Paducah, Kentucky
• Peoples Credit Union in Pembroke Pines, Florida
• Southeast Federal Credit Union in Cornelia, Georgia

The CFPB has announced the release of a report that its supervisory actions in the first four months of the year uncovered illegal activities in auto finance and payments that led to approximately $24.5 million in restitution to more than 257,000 consumers.

The Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) has announced it has voted to rescind its determination that material financial distress at GE Capital Global Holdings, LLC (GE Capital) could pose a threat to U.S. financial stability and that GE Capital should be subject to supervision by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and enhanced prudential standards. The Council unanimously determined that GE Capital no longer meets the standards for a determination, with one member recused.

HUD has announced early findings from the First-Time Homebuyer Education and Counseling Demonstration, a rigorous, large-scale, random assignment study on the benefits that housing education and counseling provides to first-time homebuyers. The initial findings suggest homebuyer education and counseling may lead to favorable results for first-time homebuyers in terms of mortgage literacy and preparedness, homebuyer outcomes, and loan performance. Between September 2013 and January 2016, HUD enrolled a diverse sample of more than 5,800 prospective first-time homebuyers across 28 metro areas. The study involves three large national lenders, 63 HUD-approved housing counseling agencies, and two remote service providers. The preliminary findings include:

• Improved mortgage literacy
• Greater appreciation for communication with lenders
• Improved underwriting qualifications
• No evidence of improved budgeting practices

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has issued two documents designed to enhance public awareness of, and involvement in, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s (the Enterprises) credit risk transfer programs. The Single-family Credit Risk Transfer Progress Report provides an overview of how the Enterprises share credit risk with the private sector through primary mortgage insurance and through credit risk transfer transactions and details the status and volume of credit risk transfers through year-end 2015. FHFA also issued a Single-Family Credit Risk Transfer Request for Input (RFI) to assist FHFA and the Enterprises in their ongoing analysis of front-end credit risk transfer transactions in which a portion of the credit risk is transferred prior to Enterprise acquisition of the underlying mortgage.

The FHFA has announced that several of its indices of new mortgage contracts indicate that nationally, interest rates on conventional purchase-money mortgages decreased from April 2016 to May 2016.

• The National Average Contract Mortgage Rate for the Purchase of Previously Occupied Homes by Combined Lenders Index was 3.70 percent for loans closed in late May, down 5 basis points from April.
• The average interest rate on all mortgage loans was 3.70 percent, down 5 basis points
• The average interest rate on conventional, 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages of $417,000 or less was 3.89 percent, down 5 basis points from April.
• The effective interest rate on all mortgage loans was 3.83 percent in May, down 6 basis points from 3.89 in April. The effective interest rate accounts for the addition of initial fees and charges over the life of the mortgage.
• The average loan amount for all loans was $329,500 in May, up $7,100 from April.

The Federal Reserve Board has announced it has not objected to the capital plans of 30 bank holding companies participating in the Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review (CCAR). The Board objected to two firms' plans (Deutsche Bank Trust Corporation and Santander Holdings USA, Inc.) based on qualitative concerns. Morgan Stanley's plan was not objected to, but the firm is being required to address certain weaknesses and resubmit its plan by the end of 2016.

ICE has announced that two New Mexico residents who were recently charged with health care fraud have been arrested. The indictment included nine health care fraud charges, and one aggravated currency structuring charge for conducting financial transactions in a manner that avoided the filing of Currency Transaction Reports (CTRs). One defendant conducted at least 200 cash withdrawals, each for several thousands of dollars but less than $10,000 and totaling at least $800,000, to avoid the filing of CTRs.