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CFPB reports on consumers’ financial well-being
On December 21, the CFPB released a report discussing the results of its Making Ends Meet survey conducted from January through March 2022, which examined the financial health of U.S. households. Using the results from the survey as well as credit bureau data, the Bureau found that the average financial well-being of U.S. consumers returned to its pre-pandemic level, with increases in income variability and use of high-cost credit products, after a substantial drop in 2021, notwithstanding sharp decreases in average credit debt that generally remained through September 2022. The report also determined that approximately one-third of consumers experienced a “major” medical or dental expense in the preceding year, while similar numbers experienced a major vehicle repair or replacement, a major house or appliance repair, or a cell phone or computer repair or replacement. Additionally, a significant number of consumers experienced reductions in income most often due to unemployment or a drop in hours. The report cautioned that “should an increase in unemployment occur, many households are unprepared for even a relatively brief period of low income.”
Fannie, Freddie announce LIBOR transition plans
On December 22, GSEs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac announced replacement indices based on the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR) for their legacy LIBOR indexed loans and securities (see here and here). The announcement follows the Federal Reserve Board’s final rule setting forth recommended replacement rates for financial contracts based on LIBOR (covered by InfoBytes here). For single-family mortgage loans and related mortgage-backed securities, the GSEs selected the relevant tenor of CME Term SOFR plus the applicable tenor spread adjustment, as published and provided by Refinitiv Limited (also known as “USD IBOR Cash Fallbacks” for “Consumer” products). The transition to the replacement indices will occur the day after June 30, 2023, which is the last date on which the Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. Benchmark Administration Limited will publish a representative rate for all remaining tenors of U.S. dollar LIBOR. The GSEs also published replacement indices for multifamily mortgage loans and related mortgage-backed securities, single family and multifamily collateralized mortgage obligations and credit risk transfer securities, and derivatives.
NCUA proposal looks to promote CU-fintech partnerships
On December 15, the NCUA issued a proposed rule seeking input on amendments to the agency’s regulations on the purchase of loan participations and the purchase, sale, and pledge of eligible obligations and other loans, including notes of liquidating credit unions. Among other things, the proposed rule would remove certain prescriptive limitations and other qualifying requirements to provide federal credit unions with additional flexibility to purchase eligible obligations of their members and engage with advanced technologies and other opportunities presented by fintechs. Improved flexibility and individual autonomy will allow federal credit unions “to establish their own risk tolerance limits and governance policies for these activities, while codifying due diligence, risk assessment, compliance and other management processes that are consistent with the Board’s long-standing expectations for safe, sound, fair and affordable lending practices,” the NCUA said. Comments on the proposed rule are due 60 days after publication in the Federal Register.
“As I have emphasized before, credit unions should recognize and harness the potential opportunities fintechs may offer them,” NCUA Chairman Todd Harper said. “However, we must also acknowledge the potential risks they pose to credit unions, their members, and the system and develop appropriate guardrails. This proposed rule strikes that balance. It provides flexibility, safety, and tailored relief to credit unions while fostering greater innovation.”
CFPB says remittance provider violated EFTA
On December 22, the CFPB announced a consent order against an international remittance company for multiple alleged violations of the requirements governing electronic money transfers. According to the Bureau, the company allegedly failed to comply with many requirements of the Electronic Fund Transfer Act, including failing to provide refunds to customers after the company made money transfer errors. The Bureau also alleged that the company violated the Remittance Rule by failing to develop and maintain required written policies and procedures for error resolution, and claimed the company violated Regulation E by failing to retain evidence demonstrating compliance with the Remittance Rule’s error-resolution requirements. Under the terms of the consent order, the company is required to provide consumer redress of approximately $30,000 to harmed customers and pay a $700,000 civil money penalty to the Bureau. The company is also required to update disclosure and key transfer information that is provided to customers, as well as its error-resolution policies and procedures.
FHA extends some pandemic-related waivers
On December 20, FHA published FHA INFO 2022-107, which extends temporary regulatory and Single Family Housing Policy Handbook 4000.1 waivers, and permits mortgagees to use alternative methods for conducting face-to-face interviews with borrowers in accordance with FHA’s early default intervention requirements. FHA initially published temporary partial waivers of these requirements on March 13, 2020, and previously extended them through December 31, 2022, in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. FHA is further extending the waivers due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the spread of the Respiratory Syncytial Virus and seasonal flu, and current staffing and resource constraints affecting mortgage servicers. The waivers are now effective through December 31, 2023.
CFPB fines bank over auto loan, mortgage, and deposit account allegations
On December 20, the CFPB announced a consent order against a national bank for allegedly mismanaging auto loans, mortgages, and deposit accounts. According to the Bureau, the bank allegedly engaged in deceptive or unfair acts or practices in violation of the CFPA by, among other things: (i) incorrectly processing auto-loan payments; (ii) assessing borrowers erroneous fees and interest due to technology, audit, and compliance failures; (iii) incorrectly denying mortgage loan modification applications; (iv) failing to ensure that unearned Guaranteed Asset Protection fees were refunded to borrowers who paid off their loans; (v) incorrectly denying mortgage loan modification applications and miscalculated fees; and (vi) charging “surprise” overdraft fees on debit card transactions and ATM withdrawals because, according to the Bureau, consumers “believed that if they had enough money to cover the relevant transaction when it was authorized they would not incur an [o]verdraft fee.”
Under the terms of the consent order, the bank is required to pay redress totaling more than $2 billion to allegedly harmed customers. Specifically, the bank is ordered to pay approximately: (i) $1.3 billion in consumer redress for affected auto lending accounts; (ii) $500 million in consumer redress for affected deposit accounts, including $205 million for illegal surprise overdraft fees; and (iii) nearly $200 million in consumer redress for affected mortgage servicing accounts. Among other things, the bank is prohibited from charging overdraft fees for deposit accounts when the consumer had available funds at the time of a purchase or other debit transaction, but then subsequently had a negative balance once the transaction settled. The bank is also ordered to pay a $1.7 billion civil penalty to the Bureau. CFPB Director Rohit Chopra released a statement following the announcement saying the order does not provide immunity for any individuals nor does it release claims for any ongoing illegal acts or practices.
The bank issued a press release stating that “[c]urrent leadership has made significant progress to transform the bank,” and noting that “the CFPB recognized that since 2020, the company has accelerated corrective actions and remediation, including to address the matters covered by today’s settlement.”
FSOC annual report highlights digital asset, cybersecurity, and climate risks
On December 16, the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC or the Council) released its 2022 annual report. The report reviewed financial market developments, identified emerging risks, and offered recommendations to mitigate threats and enhance financial stability. The report noted that “amid heightened geopolitical and economic shocks and inflation, risks to the U.S. economy and financial stability have increased even as the financial system has exhibited resilience.” The report also noted that significant unaddressed vulnerabilities could potentially disrupt institutions’ ability to provide critical financial services, including payment clearings, liquidity provisions, and credit availability to support economic activity. FSOC identified 14 specific financial vulnerabilities and described mitigation measures. Highlights include:
- Nonbank financial intermediation. FSOC expressed support for initiatives taken by the SEC and other agencies to address investment fund risks. The Council encouraged banking agencies to continue monitoring banks’ exposure to nonbank financial institutions, including reviewing how banks manage their exposure to leverage in the nonbank financial sector.
- Digital assets. FSOC emphasized the importance of enforcing existing rules and regulations applicable to the crypto-asset ecosystem, but commented that there are gaps in the regulation of digital asset activities. The Council recommended that legislation be enacted to grant rulemaking authority to the federal banking agencies over crypto-assets that are not securities. The Council said that regulatory arbitrage needs to be addressed as crypto-asset entities offering services similar to those offered by traditional financial institutions do not have to comply with a consistent or comprehensive regulatory framework. FSOC further recommended that “Council members continue to build capacities related to data and the analysis, monitoring, supervision, and regulation of digital asset activities.”
- Climate-related financial risks. FSOC recommended that state and federal agencies should continue to work to advance appropriately tailored supervisory expectations for regulated entities’ climate-related financial risk management practices. The Council encouraged federal banking agencies “to continue to promote consistent, comparable, and decision-useful disclosures that allow investors and financial institutions to consider climate-related financial risks in their investment and lending decisions.”
- Treasury market resilience. FSOC recommended that member agencies review Treasury’s market structure and liquidity challenges, and continue to consider policies “for improving data quality and availability, bolstering the resilience of market intermediation, evaluating expanded central clearing, and enhancing trading venue transparency and oversight.”
- Cybersecurity. FSOC stated it supports partnerships between state and federal agencies and private firms to assess cyber vulnerabilities and improve cyber resilience. Acknowledging the significant strides made by member agencies this year to improve data collection for managing cyber risk, the Council encouraged agencies to continue gathering any additional information needed to monitor and assess cyber-related financial stability risks.
- LIBOR transition. FSOC recommended that firms should “take advantage of any existing contractual terms or opportunities for renegotiation to transition their remaining legacy LIBOR contracts before the publication of USD LIBOR ends.” The Council emphasized that derivatives and capital markets should continue transitioning to the Secured Overnight financing Rate.
CFPB Director Rohit Chopra issued a statement following the report’s release, flagging risks posed by the financial sector’s growing reliance on big tech cloud service providers. “Financial institutions are looking to move more data and core services to the cloud in coming years,” Chopra said. “The operational resilience of these large technology companies could soon have financial stability implications. A material disruption could one day freeze parts of the payments infrastructure or grind other critical services to a halt.” Chopra also commented that FSOC should determine next year whether to grant the agency regulatory authority over stablecoin activities under Dodd-Frank. He noted that “[t]hrough the stablecoin inquiry, it has become clear that nonbank peer-to-peer payments firms serving millions of American consumers could pose similar financial stability risks” as these “funds may not be protected by deposit insurance and the failure of such a firm could lead to millions of American consumers becoming unsecured creditors of the bankruptcy estate, similar to the experience with [a now recently collapsed crypto exchange].”
Gaming company to pay $520 million to resolve FTC allegations
On December 19, the DOJ filed a complaint on behalf of the FTC against a video game developer for allegedly violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by failing to protect underage players’ privacy. The FTC also alleged in a separate administrative complaint that the company employed “dark patterns” to trick consumers into making unwanted in-game purchases, thus allowing players to accumulate unauthorized charges without parental involvement. (See also FTC press release here.)
According to the complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, the company allegedly collected personal information from players under the age of 13 without first notifying parents or obtaining parents’ verifiable consent. Parents who requested that their children’s personal information be deleted allegedly had to take unreasonable measures, the FTC claimed, and the company sometimes failed to honor these requests. The company is also accused of violating the FTC Act’s prohibition against unfair practices when its settings enabled, by default, real-time voice and text chat communications for children and teens. These default settings, as well as a matching system that enabled children and teens to be matched with strangers to play the game, exposed players to threats, harassment, and psychologically traumatizing issues, the FTC maintained. While company employees expressed concerns about the default settings and players reported concerns, the FTC said that the company resisted turning off the default setting and made it difficult for players to figure out how to turn the voice chat off when the FTC did eventually take action.
Under the terms of a proposed court order filed by the DOJ, the company would be prohibited from enabling voice and text communications unless parents (of players under the age of 13) or teenage users (or their parents) provide affirmative consent through a privacy setting. The company would also be required to delete players’ information that was previously collected in violation of COPPA’s parental notice and consent requirements unless it obtains parental consent to retain such data or the player claims to be 13 or older through a neutral age gate. Additionally, the company must implement a comprehensive privacy program to address the identified violations, maintain default privacy settings, and obtain regular, independent audits. According to the DOJ’s announcement, the company has agreed to pay $275 million in civil penalties—the largest amount ever imposed for a COPPA violation.
With respect to the illegal dark patterns allegations, the FTC claimed that the company used a variety of dark patterns, such as “counterintuitive, inconsistent, and confusing button configuration[s],” designed to get players of all ages to make unintended in-game purchases. These tactics caused players to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in unauthorized charges, the FTC said, adding that the company also charged account holders for purchases without authorization. Players were able to purchase in-game content by pressing buttons without requiring any parental or card holder action or consent. Additionally, the company allegedly blocked access to purchased content for players who disputed unauthorized charges with their credit card companies, and threatened players with a lifetime ban if they disputed any future charges. Moreover, cancellation and refund features were purposefully obscured, the FTC asserted.
To resolve the unlawful billing practices, the proposed administrative order would require the company to pay $245 million in refunds to affected players. The company would also be prohibited from charging players using dark patterns or without obtaining their affirmative consent. Additionally, the order would bar the company from blocking players from accessing their accounts should they dispute unauthorized charges.
Senate confirms Gruenberg, FDIC board members
On December 19, the U.S. Senate confirmed Martin J. Gruenberg to be a board member and chairman of the FDIC. Gruenberg has served as acting chairman since former chair, Jelena McWilliams, resigned a year ago. Since joining the FDIC Board of Directors in 2005, Gruenberg has served as vice chairman, chairman, and acting chairman. Prior to joining the FDIC, Gruenberg served on the staff of the Senate Banking Committee as senior counsel of the full committee, and as staff director of the Subcommittee on International Finance and Monetary Policy. (Covered by InfoBytes here.)
The senators also voted to confirm Travis Hill as vice chairman and Jonathan McKernan as an FDIC board member. As previously covered by InfoBytes, during his tenure at the FDIC, Hill previously served as senior advisor to the chairman and deputy to the chairman for policy. Prior to that, Hill served as senior counsel at the Senate Banking Committee. Jonathan McKernan is a senior counsel at the FHFA and currently is on detail from the agency to the Senate Banking Committee where he is counsel on the minority staff. Previously, McKernan served as a senior policy advisor at the U.S. Treasury Department.
On January 5, Gruenberg was sworn in as the 22nd FDIC chairman. The same day, Hill was sworn in as vice chairman and McKernan as a board member.
GSEs must seek FHFA preapproval for new products
On December 20, FHFA announced a final rule requiring Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to provide advance notice of new activities and to obtain prior approval before launching new products. (See also fact sheet here.) Among other things, the final rule establishes that FHFA will determine which new activities merit public notice and comment and would be treated as new products subject to prior approval. Specifically, the final rule establishes that once a Notice of New Activity is deemed received, FHFA has 15 calendar days to determine if the new activity is a new product that merits public notice and comment. Additionally, the final rule establishes a public disclosure requirement for FHFA to publish its determinations on new activity and new product submissions. Among other things, if the agency “determines that a new activity is a new product, the final rule requires FHFA to publish a public notice soliciting comments on the new product for a 30-day period.” The final rule is effective 60 days after publication in the Federal Register.