All in Regulatory Update

On 9/30/2021, Rohit Chopra was confirmed by a Senate vote of 50 to 48 to become the next director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. As we have reported previously, Chopra is a former McKinsey & Company consultant, worked with Senator Elizabeth Warren on establishing the CFPB before heading up the student lending division of the CFPB in 2011, and has been a member of the Federal Trade Commission since 2018.

On 9/30/2021, the CFPB published an article reminding servicers of newer rule that help protect potentially vulnerable borrowers exiting forbearance. In their article, the CFPB reminds loan services that not all borrowers are similarly situated and many borrowers may be vulnerable to a greater risk of harm due to a variety of pandemic-related and nonrelated circumstances, including poor health, mental decline, disability, caregiving for a child or loved one, having limited English proficiency, inadequate access to technology, or being a first-time homeowner.

On 9/23/21, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) to solicit public comment on a range of questions related to the implementation of amendments to the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) regarding the trade in antiquities. This ANPRM is the first in a series of regulatory actions that FinCEN will undertake to implement Section 6110 of the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 (AML Act), which became law on January 1, 2021.

On 9/23/21, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released its first in-depth report analyzing complaint submission patterns by U.S. Census tract. The report, “Consumer complaints throughout the credit life cycle, by demographic characteristics,” finds that the complaints from wealthier communities and communities with higher percentages of white, non-Hispanic residents were more frequently about loan origination and performing servicing, while the complaints from communities of color and lower income communities were more frequently about credit reporting, identity theft, and delinquent servicing.

On 9/16/21, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued a notice (FIN-2021-NTC3) to call attention to an increase in online child sexual exploitation (OCSE). The Notice provides financial institutions with specific suspicious activity report (SAR) filing instructions, and highlights some financial trends related to OCSE.

On 9/8/2021, the OCC announced that it is soliciting comments on proposed rules to rescind the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) rule issued in 2020 and replace it with rules adopted jointly by the Federal banking agencies in 1995, as amended. The OCC explains that the proposed rules would align the OCC’s CRA rules with the current Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation rules and thereby facilitate the on-going interagency work to modernize the CRA regulatory framework and create consistency for all insured depository institutions.