Bankers Compliance Task Force Current News Archive - August 2005
August 30, 2005 FinCEN has issued an updated 314(a) Fact Sheet which includes information as of August 30, 2005. http://www.fincen.gov/
August 30, 2005 Effective October 1st, OTS will finalize earlier interim final changes to certain application rule requirements including conforming its informal/formal meeting process to one more like its sister agencies. In addition, OTS confirms the earlier interim amendment of 12 CFR 528.4 to require displays of the equal housing logotype and legend only in advertisements for loans for the purpose of purchasing, constructing, improving, repairing, or maintaining a dwelling or loans secured by a dwelling. http://www.ots.treas.gov/
August 30, 2005 The federal banking agencies today announced the availability of the list of distressed and underserved nonmetropolitan middle-income geographies in which bank revitalization or stabilization activities will receive Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) consideration as "community development" pursuant to the revised CRA rules issued by the agencies on August 2, 2005. The list is available on the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) web site www.FFIEC.gov/cra.
August 29, 2005 The OCC published the Summer 2005 edition of the Community Developments newsletter, which provides various perspectives and strategies on how the revised Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) reporting requirements could enhance mortgage-lending opportunities for national banks and their customers. The newsletter describes key changes to HMDA and how pricing information can be used to identify mortgage lending opportunities; reviews the OCC's recent mortgage lending guidelines to prevent abusive and predatory lending practices, particularly within third-party loan origination channels; and discusses the advantages to banks of establishing partnerships with housing counseling agencies. http://www.occ.treas.gov/
August 22, 2005 The Federal Reserve Board has published proposed amendments to Regulation E, which implements the Electronic Fund Transfer Act, and to the regulation's official staff commentary that clarify the disclosure obligations of automated teller machine (ATM) operators with respect to fees imposed on a consumer for initiating an electronic fund transfer or a balance inquiry at an ATM. Currently, the regulation provides that an ATM operator that charges a fee for initiating an electronic fund transfer or balance inquiry must post notices at ATMs that a fee will be imposed. The proposed revisions would clarify the intent of the rule that ATM operators can satisfy the requirement by providing a notice that a fee "may" be imposed if there are circumstances under which some consumers would not be charged for services. ATM operators must continue to provide the consumer with a separate notice, either on the screen of the ATM or on paper, that a fee will be imposed and the amount of the fee, before the consumer is committed to paying a fee. Comments are due on or before October 7, 2005. For more information, visit: http://www.federalreserve.gov/.
August 19, 2005 Opening remarks of William J. Fox, FinCEN Director, before the industry session of the Examination Manual Regional Outreach Meetings - http://www.fincen.gov/.
August 19, 2005 The nation's thrift industry again posted record levels of earnings and equity capital in the second quarter of 2005, even as the interest rate yield curve continued to flatten, according to financial results released by the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) today. Profitability, loan growth and credit quality for the industry also continued to be strong. For more information, visit: http://www.ots.treas.gov/.
August 18, 2005 The FDIC recently implemented a new Information Technology Risk Management Program (IT-RMP) for conducting IT examinations of FDIC-supervised financial institutions. IT-RMP examination procedures apply to all FDIC-supervised banks, regardless of size, technical complexity or prior examination rating. The former IT-MERIT (Maximum Efficiency, Risk-Focused, Institution Targeted) procedures and related work programs have been rescinded. To view the new examination procedures, go to: http://www.fdic.gov/
August 18, 2005 The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has identified 30 companies and individuals associated with two Mexican drug trafficking organizations pursuant to the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act ("Kingpin Act"). For details, go to: http://www.treas.gov/.
August 18, 2005 FinCEN has updated the information on the 314(a) Fact Sheet to include data as of August 16, 2005. To access the Fact Sheet, go to: http://www.fincen.gov/.
August 17, 2005 FinCEN and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency announced that they have each assessed a $24 million civil money penalty against the New York Branch of Arab Bank for violations of the Bank Secrecy Act. Both penalties will be satisfied by a single $24 million payment to the U.S. Department of the Treasury. For more information, please visit http://www.fincen.gov/.
August 16, 2005 The FDIC is providing guidance to financial institutions on implementing a fraud hotline to minimize potential and actual fraud risks as part of a bank's governance and enterprise risk management program. To access FIL-80-2005, go to: http://www.fdic.gov/.
August 16, 2005 Consumerinfo.com, Inc. has settled FTC charges that it deceptively marketed "free credit reports" by not adequately disclosing that consumers automatically would be signed up for a credit report monitoring service and charged $79.95 if they didn't cancel within 30 days. The settlement requires Consumerinfo to pay redress to deceived consumers, bars deceptive and misleading claims about "free" offers, requires disclosure of terms and conditions of any "free" offers, and requires the defendant to give up $950,000 in ill-gotten gains. The FTC complaint alleges that Consumerinfo deceptively advertised and promoted its "free reports" at its "freecreditreport.com" Web site, without disclosing that it was not associated with the official annual free credit report program. "Consumers also need to be alert about impostor sites – sites that misspell annualcreditreport.com or use sound alike names, but don't link to the authorized site. We are sending letters to operators of more than 130 impostor sites to inform them that we know they are out there and that attempts to mislead consumers are illegal," said FTC's Director of its Bureau of Consumer Protection. For more information, visit: http://www.ftc.gov/.
August 15, 2005 The OCC has issued Activities Permissible for a National Bank, 2004 which details interpretations and decisions authorizing activities for national banks and their operating subsidiaries. http://www.occ.treas.gov/.
August 12, 2005 FinCEN has issued FAQs attempting to clarify proper completion of Currency Transaction Reports for the reporting of currency exchange transactions and how items 26, 27, 29, 33 and 36 should be filled out in Part II of the CTR. To view the guidance, go to: http://www.fincen.gov/.
August 11, 2005 The OCC has revised the "Investment in Subsidiaries and Equities" booklet of the Licensing Manual. This update clarifies affiliated business arrangements. http://www.occ.treas.gov/.
August 10, 2005 The FRB, FDIC and OCC have published exam procedures for evaluating intermediate small banks under the recently adopted changes to CRA. Intermediate small institutions may stop collecting small business, farm and community development loan data on September 1, 2005. Any CRA loan data collected prior to September 1st would NOT be reported to the agencies. To evaluate the distribution of loans, examiners will review samples of loan files, bank reports, or any other information or analyses banks may provide. In addition, to evaluate community development loans, qualified investments, and community development services, examiners will review any information banks may provide, including the results of any assessment of community development needs and opportunities; and performance context information obtained by examiners from community, government, civic, and other sources. To access the new procedures, go to: http://www.ffiec.gov/cra/pdf/isbank.pdf.
August 9, 2005 The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) has unveiled its Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering Examination InfoBase, an automated tool for examiners and the industry. This tool will help examiners and the industry more easily use and navigate the Manual. The InfoBase features the entire Manual, including background materials, examination procedures and appendices, frequently asked questions, and links to other resources that may be helpful in understanding BSA/AML requirements and examination expectations. The InfoBase is available online at www.ffiec.gov/bsa_aml_infobase. The federal banking agencies are providing the InfoBase to regional staff via CD-ROM.
August 4, 2005 The Federal Reserve Board has published its annual adjustment of the dollar amount that triggers additional disclosure requirements under the Truth in Lending Act for home mortgage loans that bear rates or fees above a certain amount. The dollar amount of the fee-based trigger has been adjusted to $528 for 2006 based on the annual percentage change reflected in the Consumer Price Index that was in effect on June 1, 2005. The adjustment is effective January 1, 2006. For more information, visit: http://www.federalreserve.gov/.
August 4, 2005 FinCen has issued Administrative Ruling 2005-6 addressing the extent to which financial institutions must establish programs to review currency transactions to detect and report "structuring" when the conduct does not required the filing of a currency transaction report. For more information, go to: http://www.fincen.gov/.
August 4, 2005 The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has noted that third parties have approached some national banks to form affiliated business arrangements (ABAs) to offer real estate settlement services. National banks that choose to enter into ABAs with third parties must ensure that such arrangements comply with section 8 (12 USC 2607) of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA). Bulletin 2005-27 has been issued to remindbanks of the Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) 1996 policy statement on "Sham Controlled Business Arrangements," now known as affiliated business arrangements. Although the name of the business arrangements has changed, HUD continues to stand behind its interpretation of section 8 of RESPA, as explained in the policy statement. The OCC transmitted HUD's policy statement in 1996 as an attachment to OCC Bulletin 96-41. The OCC is redistributing the policy statement with this bulletin. For more information, go to: http://www.occ.treas.gov/.
August 4, 2005 The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Office of Thrift Supervision (the agencies) have jointly issued the attached interagency guidance. This guidance clarifies the application of the asset quality test set forth in the agencies' final risk-based capital rule on asset-backed commercial paper (ABCP) programs. The ABCP rule, which was published in the Federal Register on July 28, 2004, instituted a new capital charge for ABCP liquidity facilities. Visit http://www.occ.treas.gov/ for more information.
August 3, 2005 The FDIC had issued FIL-73-2005 making publicly available the examiner guidance regarding the proper treatment of assignments of tobacco transition payments and successor-in-interest contracts. Visit http://www.fdic.gov/.
August 2, 2005 The FDIC is proposing to amend Part 363 of its regulations by raising the asset size threshold from $500 million to $1 billion for requirements relating to internal control assessments and reports by management and external auditors, and the requirement that members of the audit committee, who must be outside directors, be independent of management. Comments are due by September 16, 2005. To access FIL-72-2005, go to: http://www.fdic.gov/.
