Jan 6
Jan 6 FDIC Releases Monthly List of CRA Evaluations

By law, each regulatory agency is required to publish a list of financial institutions examined for Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) compliance. If you are a CRA Officer, this is both a blessing and a curse. First of all, you don't necessarily want the world to see your exam. However, reading exams from other banks can be a fantastic tool to help you with your job. In fact, I believe that reading other...

Jan 5
Jan 5 DOJ Rescinds Cole Memo on Banking Marijuana Related Businesses

Adam Witmer

Regulatory Update, BSA

Financial institutions that bank marijuana related businesses (MRBs) may have a storm coming.

Yesterday afternoon, the Department of Justice issued a memo on marijuana enforcement that rescinds previous guidance, which some banks and credit unions have relied on in allowing MRBs to bank with them.

Jan 4
Jan 4 Loan Exception Tracking

Adam Witmer

Compliance Management, Fair Lending

Loan exceptions occur any time a loan file does not meet the established standards for a financial institution. Lenders typically have guidelines they must follow, and when those guidelines are not exactly adhered to, an exception occurs. There are typically two types of loan exceptions: 1) Policy exceptions and 2) underwriting exceptions. Policy exceptions occur when...

Jan 3
Jan 3 Second Review of Adverse Action Notices

Adam Witmer

Fair Lending, Compliance Management

Conducting a second review of Adverse Action notices is one of the best ways to reduce fair lending risk. For this reason, examiners will often recommend a formal process by which to conduct a secondary review of adverse action notices if a bank or credit union does not already have one established. We believe that a second review should include two parts: 1) a technical...

Jan 1
Jan 1 HMDA Enforcement for 2018 Data

Adam Witmer

Regulatory Update, HMDA

On December 21, 2017, the CFPB (as well as the OCC and FDIC) released a statement announcing the Bureau's intentions for enforcement with respect to errors for data collected in 2018 and reported in 2019 under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA). Per the release, "the Bureau does not intend to...

Jan 1
Jan 1 2018 Threshold for Small Creditors

Adam Witmer

Regulatory Update, Regulation Z

Regulation Z sets an annual threshold to determine small creditor status for certain rules such as Ability To Repay (ATR) and Qualified Mortgage (QM) rules, as well as Higher Priced Mortgage Loan (HPML) escrow accounts. In 2018, this threshold has increased to...

Jan 1
Jan 1 2018 CRA Threshold Update

Adam Witmer

CRA, Regulatory Update

Each year, the asset-size threshold under the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) is updated based on inflation. This threshold is important as it determines which CRA test a financial institution will have during their CRA exam. For 2018, the following thresholds will apply:

Jan 1
Jan 1 2018 HMDA Threshold Changes

Adam Witmer

HMDA, Regulatory Update

Each year, HMDA applicability changes based on the asset size of a financial institution. The 2018 threshold for 2018 has increased from $44 million in 2017 to $45 million in 2018. This threshold is only...