On 10/1/2020, President Trump signed H.R.8337 which extends the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) through September 30, 2021. While funding for the flood program, and other government programs, expired for about an hour after the September 30, 2020 deadline had passed, CNBC reports that President Trump signed the bill early Thursday after apparently getting back from a campaign trip to Minnesota. While the bill only extends many government functions through December 31, 2020, it does specifically extend the NFIP through September 30, 2021.

On 9/1/2020, the five joint regulatory agencies announced that they extended the comment period to revise the Interagency Questions and Answers Regarding Flood Insurance (Interagency Questions and Answers) until November 3, 2020.

In their release, the agencies explain that they extended the comment period because of the extent of the revisions proposed by the agencies and in light of the challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.

On 7/20/2020, FEMA published a final rule in the Federal Register updating the National Flood Insurance Program rules. This release is the final rule from FEMA’s 7/16/2018 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that proposed to make several non-substantive changes to the flood program regulations to improve their readability, uniformity, and clarity. In addition, FEMA planned to include certain requirements of the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012 and the Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act of 2014.

On 6/26/2020, the OCC, Federal Reserve, FDIC, Farm Credit Administration, and the NCUA issued a joint proposal to update the interagency flood FAQs. If issued as proposed, these revisions would be the first updates to the Interagency Questions and Answer Regarding Flood Insurance since they were last updated in 2011.

As you might recall, there have been several updates to flood insurance rules since 2011 including the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012, the Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act of 2014, interagency guidance on the detached structure exemption, rules on the escrow of flood insurance premiums, and private flood insurance guidance. In addition to updating the questions and answers to align with most of the current flood insurance laws and guidance, the proposal would also…

On May 6, 2020, the Federal Reserve released a letter to all state member banks supervised by the Federal Reserve titled “Flood Insurance Compliance in Response to the Coronavirus.” In their release, the Fed explains that they have received questions from state member banks regarding flood insurance compliance requirements during the national emergency due to the COVID-19 outbreak (COVID-19 emergency). This letter provides two flood insurance questions and answers to assist state member banks in their efforts to meet the financial needs of their customers.

On 11/19/19, the House Committee on Appropriations released a statement that the House passed a continuing resolution to extend federal government funding through December 20, 2019, which includes an extension of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). This is the fourteenth temporary extension since 2017 while lawmakers work on a longer-term solution that would

As the twelth exetension of the National Flood Insurance Program is set to expire on September 30, 2019, financial institutions must again hold their breath (no pun intended) to see if Congress yet again kicks the can down the road by renewing the program one more time. While we at the Compliance Cohort will be sure to keep you up-to-date with any changes to the Flood program, you may be wondering what you should do if the Flood program does, in fact, expire. Check out this article for guidance on what your financial institution should do if the flood program were to expire: https://www.compliancecohort.com/blog/what-to-do-if-the-nfip-expires