FinCEN Issues Law Enforcement Awards

Adam Witmer
Regulatory Update

On 5/29/2020, FinCEN announced the 2020 recipients of their annual Law Enforcement Awards Program, which recognizes law enforcement agencies that used Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) reporting to successfully pursue and prosecute criminal investigations. These awards can often be beneficial for BSA professionals to review as they often identify trends in money laundering.

CFPB Settles with Mortgage Lender

Adam Witmer
Regulatory Update

On 5/14/20, the CFPB announced a judgement to resolve its allegations against a California mortgage lender (Chou Team Realty, LLC), which does business as Monster Loans, and several individuals and related companies, including Thomas Chou and Sean Cowell. The Bureau alleged that Chou and Cowell were among the leaders of a scheme to use Monster Loans’ account with a major credit bureau to unlawfully obtain consumer reports for their associated student loan debt-relief companies, which in turn used the consumer reports to deceptively market their services nationwide and then charged consumers illegal fees.

FLASH SALE! HMDA for Exempt Institutions

Adam Witmer

For those financial institutions who are lucky enough to become exempt on July 1, 2020, we are having a flash sale on our new program: Managing the HMDA July 2020 Changes for Newly Exempt Institutions. This program is designed to assist newly exempted institutions with the transition to becoming a non-HMDA bank. Included with this program is a 10-step implementation guide as well as a stand-alone training video on the GMI requirements under Regulation B, which can be used to train loan team members on how to collect GMI under Regulation B (which is actually quite different than the HMDA requirements). The flash sale offers a pretty nice discount and is available for newly exempt institutions. This program can be found at: https://www.compliancecohort.com/hmda-july-2020

ENDS TODAY: Discount on Spring 2020 Quarterly Compliance Update

Adam Witmer

Today is the last day to get a discount on our new Spring 2020 Quarterly Compliance Update. This newest installment of our quarterly series runs 2 1/2 hours and covers all of the regulatory compliance activity that took place during the first quarter of 2020. As 2020 started out with a bang (and boy did it!), plenty of material is covered in this program, including an entire section (Part II) on COVID-19 related guidance. Additional topics include BSA, HMDA, and CRA as well as misc agency guidance that covers TRID, Reg D and many more items. Be sure to take advantage of our early bird discount on this program that ends today (5/15/20).

The full curriculum can be found in our store at https://www.compliancecohort.com/spring-2020-quarterly-compliance-update.

CFPB Guidance on Financial Institution Responsibilities

Adam Witmer
Regulatory Update

On May 13, 2020, the CFPB issued a statement regarding the impact the COVID-19 pandemic is having on the financial well-being of many consumers and on the operations of many financial institutions, including creditors subject to Regulation Z. In short, the CFPB explained that they issued this statement to inform creditors of the Bureau’s flexible supervisory and enforcement approach during this pandemic regarding the timeframe within which creditors complete their investigations of consumers’ billing error notices. Specifically, in evaluating a creditor’s compliance with the maximum timeframe for billing error resolution set forth in Regulation Z, the CFPB states that they intend to consider the creditor’s circumstances and do not intend to cite a violation in an examination or bring an enforcement action against a creditor that takes longer than required by the regulation to resolve a billing error notice, so long as the creditor has made good faith efforts to obtain the necessary information and make a determination as quickly as possible (and complies with all other requirements pending resolution of the error).

Fed Updates Reg D FAQs

Adam Witmer
Regulation D, Regulatory Update, Regulation CC

On 5/13/2020, the Federal Reserve updated their Frequently Asked Questions regarding Regulation D and the recent changes to the rule. Among other things, the updates to the FAQs include the following clarifications:

  • Question 3 answers the question of whether or not the recent amendments to Regulation D are temporary or permanent. As explained in the answer, the Federal Reserve does not expect the changes to be “short term” and “does not have plans to re-impose transfer limits,” but could if future conditions warrant it.

  • Question 13 explains what we have been saying the last few weeks: that the recent Reg D changes do not cause savings deposits to be subject to Reg CC hold requirements.

CFPB Releases Final Rule on Remittance Transfers

Adam Witmer
Regulation E, Regulatory Update

On May 11, 2020, the CFPB issued a final rule covering remittances transfers, which imposes requirements on entities that send international money transfers (i.e. remittance transfers) on behalf of consumers. Among its requirements, the Remittance Rule mandates that remittance transfer providers generally must disclose the exact exchange rate, the amount of certain fees, and the amount expected to be delivered to the recipient. The existing Remittance Rule also allows for depository institutions to estimate certain fees and exchange rate information under certain circumstances, but by statute, this provision expires in July 2020.

The new final rule allows certain banks and credit unions to continue to provide estimates of the exchange rate and certain fees under certain conditions. This could preserve consumers’ ability to send remittances from their bank accounts to certain countries or recipient institutions. In addition, the new final rule also increases the threshold that determines whether an entity makes remittance transfers in the normal course of its business and is subject to the Rule. Specifically, entities making 500 or fewer transfers annually in the current and prior calendar years would not be subject to the Rule. In their issuance, the CFPB states that this will reduce the burden on over 400 banks and almost 250 credit unions that send a relatively small number of remittances.

HMDA Final Rule Published

Adam Witmer

On 5/12/2020, the CFPB published their final rule on HMDA that will exempt nearly 1,600 small HMDA reporters from reporting HMDA in the future. For those who will become newly exempt, we have a simple program (currently on sale!) to assist financial institutions with the change. This program can be found at https://www.compliancecohort.com/hmda-july-2020.

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