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…

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.

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.  

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.

Revised Loan Estimate Expiration Date

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.

TRID 2.0: Rate Locks and Revised Disclosures

Adam Witmer
Regulation Z, TRID

Section 1026.19(e)(3)(iv)(D) of Regulation Z requires a creditor to provide a revised Loan Estimate within three business days after the date an interest rate is subsequently locked on a loan where an initial LE was issued without a (signed) rate lock agreement in place.  In other words, if a rate was initially floating and is later locked, a revised LE must be provided within three business days of the rate lock.

Resetting Tolerances with a Loan Estimate for TRID 2.0

Adam Witmer
Regulation Z, TRID

One of the key provisions of TRID rules relates to the “good faith” requirement, which essentially provides certain tolerance thresholds that must be honored for applicants who are quoted certain fees on the Loan Estimate (LE).  Tolerance requirements actually pre-date TRID but were a big part of the consumer protection requirements of TRID. TRID 2.0 has made two minor revisions to the original rules regarding using a revised estimate in calculating good faith requirements.

SAR Filing Deadlines

SAR Filing Deadlines

Adam Witmer
BSA

This Compliance Clip explains the SAR filing timeframes, which you would think would be easy. Unfortunately, like all good compliance topics, they are actually more confusing than you would think. Adam uses layman's terms to explain when the clock starts and how to calculate when a SAR filing is due.

Agencies Release CRA Ratings for June 2018

Adam Witmer
CRA, Regulatory Update

Last week, the OCC and FDIC released their monthly list of CRA ratings from June of 2018.  The following summary provides a few noteworthy highlights from this months ratings. As we have advocated before, one of the best ways for a financial institution to understand their requirements under the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) is to read the performance evaluations from other financial institutions.

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