Aug 24

Aug 24 2018 Regulation P Amendments

This Compliance Clip (video) discusses the August 2018 amendments to Regulation P. This final rule does four things and Adam provides a summary of the changes, including the exemption to sending the annual privacy notice from qualifying institutions. Those institutions who provide a privacy notice only because of the FCRA opt-out should pay particular attention to this video, as the new amendments provide relief to certain institutions. The video also discusses the timing requirements for institutions who lose their exemption due to a change in their privacy policy. In a rare "reference moment," Adam ends this video with one of his favorite quotes from "The Truman Show."

Aug 22
Aug 22 Availability of Resources for HMDA Filers

Adam Witmer

Regulatory Update, HMDA

Earlier this month, the CFPB released a few different resources for HMDA filers. These resources include the availability of the 2017 HMDA Data as well as the availability of the File Format Verification Tool. Guidance for small HMDA filers, however, has not yet been released though the CFPB has given a time-frame of by the "end of summer."

Aug 8
Aug 8 FinCEN Extends Limited Exemption for Beneficial Ownership Rules

Adam Witmer

BSA, Regulatory Update

Earlier today, August 8, 2018, FinCEN extended the temporary, 90-day limited exemptive relief for an additional thirty days. Originally issued on May 16, 2018, the rule was effective retroactively to May 11, 2018 and was good for 90 days, meaning that it was set to expire on August 9, 2018.

Aug 5
Aug 5 Agencies Release July 2018 List of Banks Examined for CRA Compliance

Adam Witmer

CRA, Regulatory Update

Each month, the FDIC and OCC each release a list of banks that have been evaluated under the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). This information is extremely valuable to CRA officers as one of the best ways to understand the CRA requirements for a financial institution is to read the performance evaluations of other financial institutions of the same regulator. This article summarizes some of the key points from these evaluations.

Aug 3
Aug 3 FinCEN Temporary BO Exemption for Rollovers to Expire August 9, 2018

Adam Witmer

BSA, Regulatory Update

Next Thursday, August 9, is the day that the temporary beneficial ownership exemption for automatic rollover products is set to expire. The question is, will FinCEN do anything before next Thursday?

Aug 1
Aug 1 Congress Extends National Flood Insurance Program

Adam Witmer

Regulatory Update, Flood

On Tuesday, July 31, President Trump signed a four-month extension of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) into law. As has been the case several times this year, the NFIP was set to expire on 7/31/2018 if congress did not step up and renew the program. Though the House of Representatives had passed the renewal a while back, the Senate did not extend the program until the last minute before the program was set to expire - at midnight on 7/31/18. This short term, temporary extension is the…

Jul 31
Jul 31 Predictions on How HMDA for Small Reporters Will Work

Adam Witmer

HMDA, Regulatory Update

It’s never a good idea to “guess” how a new law will be incorporated into a regulation, but I have received quite a few questions regarding how small HMDA reporters will report HMDA data once the CFPB finalizes the changes required by the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act of 2018. Therefore, I want to share my understanding of what I think is going to happen, though you should know full well that this is (mostly) just speculation until changes to Regulation C become final.

Jul 30
Jul 30 New SAR Form 2018

Adam Witmer

BSA, Regulatory Update

In January of 2018, FinCEN provided an announcement that a new version of the Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) will be modified and available for use in June of 2018. It is our understanding that, on Friday, July 28, 2018 FinCen finally released the new SAR Form (2018).

This revision marks the first update to the SAR form since releasing the electronic-only version (v1.1) of the form a few years back. These SAR changes appear to be substantially similar to the 2017 revisions that were made to the Currency Transaction Report (CTR) as most changes are minor in nature and will not be substantial for most financial institutions. That said, three of the five sections of the original version of the electronic SAR are reported o have been modified, though, again, most changes are not substantial to financial institutions - with the exception on SARs filed for a cyber-event.

Jul 25
Jul 25 HUD Comments on Disparate Impact Due August 20, 2018

Adam Witmer

Fair Lending, Regulatory Update

As compliance professionals, we have an opportunity to impact future rules and regulations by providing comments to proposed rulemakings. This opportunity is actually built into the rulemaking process, and I can tell you from reading many final rules over the years that comments are at least considered and often addressed in final rules. The truth is that comments can make a difference and, right now, we all have an opportunity to provide feedback (comment) regarding how disparate impact is evaluated under the Fair Housing Act.

Jul 23

Jul 23 Revised Loan Estimate Expiration Date

Adam Witmer

Regulatory Update, Regulation Z, TRID

In this Compliance Clip (video), Adam explains how the rule changes for completing the expiration date for a revised Loan Estimate could quite possibly be the biggest change to TRID 2.0. This is definitely something every creditor needs to review and ensure they understand the new rules so that they don't end up with violations during their next audit report.