Bankers Compliance Task Force Current News Archive - September 2006
September 29, 2006 The federal financial regulatory agencies issued final guidance to address the risks posed by residential mortgage products that allow borrowers to defer repayment of principal and sometimes interest. The final guidance discusses the importance of carefully managing the potential heightened risk levels created by these loans. The agencies are issuing two additional related documents--Proposed Illustrations of Consumer Information for Nontraditional Mortgage Products and an addendum to the May 2005 Interagency Credit Risk Management Guidance for Home Equity Lending. http://www.federalreserve.gov/BoardDocs/Press/bcreg/2006/20060929/attachment1.pdf, http://www.federalreserve.gov/BoardDocs/Press/bcreg/2006/20060929/attachment2.pdf, and http://www.federalreserve.gov/BoardDocs/Press/bcreg/2006/20060929/addendum.htm
September 29, 2006 The Department of the Treasury updated the Anti-Terrorist Financing Guidelines for Charitable Sector to reflect comments and suggestions provided by the public. The updated guidelines take into account areas of major concern, clarifying that the Guidelines are voluntary, not mandatory, and they do not amend or supersede existing statutes and regulations governing charities. The Guidelines also provide recommended best practices, which are intended to help charities develop, reevaluate, and build upon pre-existing internal controls and protective measures. Moreover, the Guidelines urge charities to take a proactive risk-based approach to protecting against illicit abuse and are intended to be applied by those charities vulnerable to such abuse in a matter that is commensurate with the risks they face and the resources with which they work. As requested by the charitable sector, the Guidelines contain extensive anti-terrorist financing guidance, as well as guidance on sound governance and financial practices that helps to prevent exploitation of charities. http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/hp122.htm
September 27, 2006 OTS has announced that it plans to issue a NPR to amend its CRA regulations to bring them alignment with those of the other federal banking regulators. http://www.ots.treas.gov/docs/7/776045.html
September 27, 2006 The OCC has announced the publication of the September 2006 New Electronic Interpretations and Actions. http://www.occ.treas.gov/interp/sep06/intsep06.htm
September 26, 2006 The OCC has announced that the agency will host a workshop for national community bank directors at the Peabody Hotel, Orlando, Florida, on October 24, 2006. The workshop will cover compliance risk in addition to providing practical information to expand bank directors' skills and understanding of issues facing their banks. The session is limited to the first 50 registrants and is geared primarily to outside directors of national community banks with assets of less than $1 billion. http://www.occ.gov/ComplianceRisk.htm
September 26, 2006 OFAC Director Adam Szubin released a statement on September 26th regarding the successful dismantling of the notorious Cali cartel. Through financial sanctions issued since 1995 by the Treasury Department along with the help of law enforcement, OFAC has made an agreement with 28 designated family members of the narcotics trafficker Rodriguez Orejuela, to forfeit their interests in all narcotics-related entities worldwide, including the hundreds of entities designated by OFAC. The designated family members have also committed to assist U.S. and Colombian governments in any future forfeiture actions. "Today's outcome is a success - two dangerous drug lords are headed to prison and their once-powerful financial empire has been dismantled" said OFAC Director Szubin. http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/hp112.htm
September 25, 2006 The FDIC has published a special guide to help teens (and many pre-teens) learn about saving and managing their money. The FDIC is encouraging financial institutions to make the information in this publication, as well as two previously published guides for seniors and young adults, widely available. http://www.fdic.gov/news/news/financial/2006/fil06088.html
September 22, 2006 FinCEN issues guidance in the form of frequently asked questions to assist money services businesses in understanding the regulatory requirements regarding conducting independent reviews of their anti-money laundering programs. http://www.fincen.gov/Guidance_MSB_Independent_Audits9-21.pdf
September 22, 2006 FRB Financial Services has announced effective October 2, 2006, the conversion of additional routing numbers to the FedReceipt forward collection and return item products. http://www.frbservices.org/Retail/pdf/CK21AvailabilityChangesFedReceipt100206.pdf
September 19, 2006 The Federal Reserve has posted the new reference rates that lenders must use to determine if loans for which applications are received in October 2006 will be subject to HOEPA under the APR trigger test. Use the FRB H.15 to find applicable release that lists the Treasury Security with the same maturity term as your loan. To make the calculation, you use the yield in effect on the 15th of the month that precedes the month you received the application.
http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h15/Current/
September 19, 2006 HUD announced that an increase in calls coming into its toll-free fair housing complaint line, 1-800-669-9777, shows that recent enhancements made to the system have helped achieve the agency's goal of enabling more individuals to report housing discrimination to its Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO). About 13,000 calls a month now come into the hotline, up 8 percent over previous months. http://www.hud.gov/news/release.cfm?content=pr06-117.cfm
September 15, 2006 FDIC's proposal for a redesigned official sign and logo that all banks and savings institutions would display at teller stations and in deposit-related advertising - http://www.aba.com/aba/documents/news/fdicsign.pdf.
September 14, 2006 The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency issued Depository Services, a new booklet that provides background information and optional expanded examination procedures for several consumer protection regulations. The booklet covers reserve requirements, electronic fund transfers, interest on deposits, expedited funds availability and truth in savings. http://www.occ.treas.gov/handbook/depserv.pdf
September 14, 2006 FinCEN has updated the 314a Fact Sheet to include data current as of September 12, 2006. http://www.fincen.gov/314afactsheet.pdf
September 13, 2006 Financial services continue to be the most targeted industry sector for phishers, growing to 93.5 percent of all attacks in the month of July, the Anti-Phishing Working Group reported. The number of unique phishing Web sites detected in July was 14,191, the highest ever recorded. July 2006 also showed the highest number of brands subjected to phishing attacks recorded by the working group to date, at 154. http://www.antiphishing.org/reports/apwg_report_july_2006.pdf
September 11, 2006 The September 2006 FR Bulletin contains an article on the topic of "Higher-Priced Home Lending and the 2005 HMDA Data." http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/bulletin/2006/hmda/bull06hmda.pdf
September 8, 2006 The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) announced the availability of data for the year 2005 on mortgage lending transactions at 8,848 financial institutions covered by the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) in metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) throughout the nation. The HMDA data made available include disclosure statements for each financial institution, aggregate data for each MSA, nationwide summary statistics regarding lending patterns, and the Loan Application Register (LAR), modified for borrower privacy, submitted by each institution to its supervisory agency by March 1, 2006. http://www.ffiec.gov/hmcrpr/hm090806.htm
September 8, 2006 In October 2005, the FFIEC issued guidance entitled Authentication in an Internet Banking Environment. The guidance focuses on the risks of fraud and identity theft associated with Internet banking activities. The guidance states that financial institutions should perform a risk assessment, identify and strengthen control weaknesses, measure and evaluate customer awareness efforts, and implement any necessary corrective actions. National banks are expected to have achieved conformance with the guidance by year-end 2006. http://www.occ.treas.gov/ftp/alert/2006-50.txt
September 7, 2006 The FTC has announced that a $1 million penalty will be paid by a social networking Web site for knowingly violating provisions of the Children Online Privacy Protections Act (COPPA). The penalty, which is double the next largest penalty, was reached in a settlement with Xanga.com, Inc., who allegedly used and disclosed personal information from children under the age of 13 without first notifying parents and obtaining their consent. http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2006/09/xanga.htm
September 5, 2006 The FDIC has permanently adopted the final rule to implement provisions of the Federal Deposit Insurance Reform Act of 2005 pertaining to deposit insurance coverage. The Board had issued an interim rule, effective April 1, 2006, to implement the new insurance coverage provisions. The final rule is unchanged from the interim rule, except that the preamble provides a more detailed explanation of the types of retirement accounts included in the rule changes. The final rule takes effect on October 12, 2006. http://www.fdic.gov/news/board/sept5no7.pdf
September 1, 2006 Updtate to FinCEN MSB Registration List - http://www.fincen.gov/msb_registration_list.pdf.
September 1, 2006 OCC issues guidance on ACH risk management. This bulletin contains the key components of
an effective ACH risk management program. Each bank should use this guidance to develop an ACH risk management program that reflects the nature and complexity of the bank's activities. This bulletin supplements guidance on ACH activities contained in the FFIEC IT Examination Handbook on Retail Payment Systems, dated March 2004, and National Automated Clearinghouse Operating Rules and replaces OCC Bulletin 2002-2 (ACH Transactions
Involving the Internet). http://www.occ.treas.gov/ftp/bulletin/2006-39.pdf
September 1, 2006 In the latest edition of OCC's newsletter, Community Developments Investments, the newsletter reports that national banks invested $638 million to revitalize and stabilize communities in the second quarter of 2006 just one year after the revised Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) regulations took effect. The OCC publication also highlights how changes promulgated by the OCC, the Federal Reserve, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation give greater flexibility for banks to make investments to help distressed or underserved rural areas and federally designated disaster areas while reducing regulatory burden on banks with assets between $250 million and $1 billion. Articles in this edition also discuss how banks and examiners are applying the new rules and how banks can satisfy the new CRA requirements. http://www.occ.gov/cdd/summer06/index.html
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