CFPB Provides Snapshot of Mortgage Complaints

Adam Witmer
Regulatory Update, Compliance Management

At the end of January (1/29/29), the CFPB released their “Complaint snapshot: Mortgage” document.  This report takes a deep dive into the mortgage-related complaints received by the Bureau and also highlights some trends that they have observed. For those of you with large mortgage originations and portfolios (which is almost every financial institution), this information can be extremely valuable for two reasons.  First, this information can…

CFPB Reaches More Settlements

Adam Witmer
Regulatory Update

In addition to the settlement with USAA on January 3, 2019, the CFPB has made settlements with five other entities already in 2019.  Headquartered in Akron, Ohio, Sterling Jewelers operates over 1.500 jewelry stores under several names, including Kay Jewelers, Jared The Galleria of Jewelry, JB Robinson Jewelers, Marks & Morgan Jewelers, Belden Jewelers, Goodman Jewelers, LeRoy’s Jewelers, Osterman Jewelers, Rogers Jewelers, Shaw’s Jewelers, and Weisfield Jewelers.

CFPB Issues Analysis on Elder Financial Exploitation

Adam Witmer
BSA, Regulatory Update

On February 27, 2019, the CFPB issued a report titled “Suspicious Activity Reports on Elder Financial Exploitation: Issues and Trends.”  In their release, they explain that financial institutions have reported over 180,000 suspicious activities targeting older adults. Combined, these Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) involved more than $6 billion in elder financial exploitation.

The first of its kind, this report presents a public analysis of SARs filed for elder financial exploitation between 2013 and 2017.  The CFPB explains that the findings in the analysis provide an “opportunity to better understand the complex problem of elder financial exploitation and to identify ways to improve prevention and response.” The full report runs 35 pages long and includes several sections including…

5 Tips for Leading an Annual Day of Compliance Training

5 Tips for Leading an Annual Day of Compliance Training

Adam Witmer
Compliance Management

In this Compliance Clip (video), Adam provides 5 tips for leading an annual day of compliance training. As many banks continue to have an annual day of training that includes at least some compliance training, it is important for compliance professionals to be able to effectively deliver the content of the training. The reality of this is that the deliver can be a challenge because staff often resist the training and push back a bit or even complain that it doesn’t apply to them. Therefore, it is essential that compliance training be delivered in the best way possible. Adam uses this video to provide 5 tips (and a bonus) that he uses when leading compliance training for all employees of a financial institution.

Also, if you are interested in having Adam speak at one of your future compliance training days, you can contact us at members@compliancecohort.com.

Revised Loan Estimates After Rate Lock

Adam Witmer
Regulation Z, TRID

For years now, I have been advocating that there is only one reason why a revised Loan Estimate must absolutely be issued: when an initially floating rate is subsequently locked.

Sure, there are other reasons a financial institution can issue a revised loan estimate, such as when there is a valid changed circumstance, but the only time a revised Loan Estimate is absolutely required is when an initially floating rate is subsequently locked.

While this reason for a revised loan estimate may seem simple, there are actually some questions that arise with the requirement to provide a revised Loan Estimate from a rate lock.  For example, you may be asking one of the following questions:

  • Is a written rate lock agreement required for the revised Loan Estimate trigger?

  • Is a revised Loan Estimate required after a rate expiration or for a rate extension?

  • Is a revised Loan Estimate required when a rate is locked after a Closing Disclosure has been issued?

  • Is a revised Closing Disclosure required when a rate is locked after a Closing Disclosure has been issued?

Feedback?

Adam Witmer

Do you enjoy your membership at the Compliance Cohort? If so, we’d love to hear from you.

You see, we are redoing a few things on our website and are looking for a few member testimonials to be used on our home page and in other marketing material. If you are interested in providing feedback about your membership, you can do so here: www.compliancecohort.com/member-feedback

Members like you are the reason we do what we do.

Can a Lender Have Denial Authority?

Can a Lender Have Denial Authority?

Adam Witmer
Fair Lending

In this Compliance Clip (video), Adam answers a question regarding lender "denial authority. Specifically, the question relates to whether a lender’s “denial authority” can be greater than their authority to approve loans. In his answer, Adam explains where one should look for the answer and provides some concerns to consider.

CFPB Updates 2019 List of Rural and Underserved Counties

Adam Witmer
Regulation Z, Regulatory Update

Yesterday, 2/12/19, the CFPB released their list of rural and underserved counties.  That list, which can be exported to a PDF, CSV, or an Excel file, can be found here.   In conjunction with updating this list, the CFPB has also updated its “Rural or Underserved Areas Tool” which can be used to provide a safe harbor determination that a property is located in a rural or underserved area.  The tool provides more detail than the county list because the tool includes both locations that are rural because they lie in a non-urban census block as well as locations that are in rural counties while the list only reflects rural status only at the county level.

We understand that this information isn’t the most exciting of information, but it is important to understand how this information impacts community banks and credit unions.  Specifically, the updated rural and underserved information applies to…

Money Laundering 101

Money Laundering 101

Adam Witmer
BSA

In this Compliance Clip (video), Adam provides an overview of money laundering and gives a big picture illustration of how it applies to financial institutions. This foundational explanation of money laundering gives a great practical example of how money laundering can occur and discusses the three steps illicit “actors” use to launder money in the US financial system. This clip would be a great training resource for anyone who is new to BSA to help them understand what money laundering is. In fact, Adam took these slides directly from our BSA Bootcamp, which is a 3 1/2 hour video webinar that provides a foundational overview of all BSA rules and regulations. For more foundational BSA training just like this, our BSA Bootcamp is available in our store here: www.compliancecohort.com/video-webinar-bsa-bootcamp

FDIC Extends Comment Period for FDIC Deposit Insurance Application Process Proposal

Adam Witmer
Regulatory Update

On February 12, 2019, the FDIC extended the comment period related to the Request for Information (RFI) on the Deposit Insurance Application Process from February 11, 2019, to March 31, 2019.  The Financial Institution Letter (FIL-7-2019) announcing this extension can be found here.

An interesting note on this is that the original comment period for this RFI ended on February 11, 2019.  Upon reviewing the comments received on the FDIC’s website, it appears that only ten (10) comments have been received as of the date of the writing of this article.  Therefore, it appears that the FDIC has extended the comment period in hopes of obtaining more comments on this topic.

Comments on the RFI can be submitted (and read) here.

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