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FinCEN, federal banking agencies provide CIP program relief
On October 9, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), in concurrence with the OCC, Federal Reserve, FDIC, and NCUA (collectively, “federal banking agencies”), issued an interagency order granting an exemption from the requirements of the customer identification program (CIP) rules for insurance premium finance loans extended by banks to all customers. The exemption is intended to facilitate insurance premium finance lending for the purchase of property and casualty insurance policies and will apply to loans extended by banks and their subsidiaries, subject to the federal banking agencies’ jurisdiction. According to FinCEN, insurance premium finance loans present a low risk for money laundering due to the purpose for which the loans are extended and the limitations on how such funds may be used. Moreover, FinCEN emphasized that “property and casualty insurance policies themselves are not an effective means for transferring illicit funds.” Banks, however, must still comply with all other regulatory requirements, including those implementing the Bank Secrecy Act that require the filing of suspicious activity reports. Furthermore, the federal banking agencies determined that the order is consistent with safe and sound banking practices. The order supersedes a September 2018 order, which previously granted an exemption from the CIP rule requirements for commercial customers (covered by InfoBytes here).
OCC, FDIC announce disaster relief guidance
On October 9, the FDIC issued FIL-96-2020 to provide regulatory relief to financial institutions and, starting on September 14, help facilitate recovery in areas of Florida affected by Hurricane Sally. The guidance notes that the FDIC will consider the unusual circumstances faced by institutions affected by the hurricane. The guidance suggests that institutions work with impacted borrowers to, among other things: (i) extend repayment terms; (ii) restructure existing loans; or (iii) ease terms for new loans to those affected by the severe weather, provided the measures are “done in a manner consistent with sound banking practices.” Additionally, the FDIC notes that institutions may receive Community Reinvestment Act consideration for community development loans, investments, and services in support of disaster recovery. The FDIC states it will also consider relief from certain reporting and publishing requirements.
Additionally, on October 8, the OCC issued a proclamation permitting OCC-regulated institutions, at their discretion, to close offices affected by Hurricane Delta “for as long as deemed necessary for bank operation or public safety.” The proclamation directs institutions to OCC Bulletin 2012-28 for further guidance on actions they should take in response to natural disasters and other emergency conditions. According to the 2012 Bulletin, only bank offices directly affected by potentially unsafe conditions should close, and institutions should make every effort to reopen as quickly as possible to address customers’ banking needs.
Find continuing InfoBytes coverage on disaster relief here.
Financial services firm fined $400 million for risk-management deficiencies
On October 7, the OCC and Federal Reserve Board announced enforcement actions against a financial services firm and its national bank subsidiary (bank) to resolve alleged enterprise-wide risk management, data governance, and internal controls deficiencies. According to the OCC’s announcement, the bank allegedly engaged in unsafe or unsound banking practices by failing to “establish effective risk management and data governance programs and internal controls.” While neither admitting nor denying the allegations, the bank has agreed to pay a $400 million civil money penalty. Additionally, under the terms of the OCC’s cease and desist order, the bank must implement corrective measures to improve its risk management, data governance, and internal controls. The agency’s announcement states that the order further requires the bank “to seek the OCC’s non-objection before making significant new acquisitions and reserves the OCC’s authority to implement additional business restrictions or require changes in senior management and the bank’s board should the bank not make timely, sufficient progress in complying with the order.”
In conjunction with the OCC’s action, the Fed also announced a cease and desist order against the financial services firm, which identified ongoing deficiencies with respect to areas of compliance risk management, data quality management, and internal controls. Among other things, the Fed claims the firm also failed to adequately remediate “longstanding” deficiencies identified in previously issued consent orders, including in areas such as anti-money laundering compliance. The order requires the firm to enhance firm-wide risk management and internal controls, and imposes a series of deadlines for the firm to take measures to ensure compliance with the OCC’s order, enhance its compliance risk management programs, devise a plan to hold senior management accountable, and improve data quality management.
Federal banking agencies amend capital rules to encourage support of recovery
On October 8, the OCC, FDIC and Federal Reserve Board finalized two rules intended to encourage depository institutions to utilize their capital buffers, which must be maintained in order to avoid having restrictions placed on capital distributions, for lending and other financial intermediation activities. The agencies amended rules governing risk-based capital and leverage ratio requirements for U.S. banking organizations, to make limitations on capital distributions more gradual in nature. The agencies also amended rules governing the total loss-absorption capacity of the largest U.S. bank holding companies and U.S. operations of the largest foreign banking organizations.
OCC issues CRA compliance resources
On October 1, the OCC released three items in support of the implementation of the new Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) final rule. The three newly released items include: (i) a compliance guide for small banks; (ii) an initial illustrative list of qualifying activities; and (iii) a form to request consideration of items to be added to the list of qualifying activities. As previously covered by a Buckley Special Alert, the OCC’s rule, while technically effective October 1, provides for at least a 27-month transition period for compliance based on a bank’s size and business model. Large banks and wholesale and limited purpose banks will have until January 1, 2023 to comply, and small and intermediate banks that opt-in to the final rule’s performance standards will have until January 1, 2024.
FFIEC adopts revised interagency examination procedures for TILA
On September 30, On September 30, the OCC issued Bulletin 2020-84 announcing the Task Force on Consumer Compliance of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council’s adoption of revised interagency examination procedures for TILA, as implemented by Regulation Z. The updated interagency procedures reflect changes made to Regulation Z that relate to the TILA-RESPA Integrated Mortgage Disclosure Rule. Updates also reflect amendments to TILA that relate to the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act (EGRRCPA), such as (i) special provisions relating to high-cost loans, appraisals, and student lending; (ii) “an additional type of qualified mortgage for insured depository institutions with less than $10 billion in assets”; and (iii) “an additional type of escrow exemption for insured depository institutions with less than $10 billion in assets.” The bulletin rescinds the “Truth in Lending Act” booklet of the Comptroller’s Handbook, as well as OCC Bulletin 2018-31, “Truth in Lending Act: Revised Comptroller's Handbook Booklet and Rescissions.” Going forward, examiners should only rely on the revised interagency examination procedures.
The CFPB also updated its TILA examination procedures to reflect 2017 and 2018 amendments to Regulation Z and EGRRCPA on September 29.
OCC releases bank supervision operating plan for FY 2021
On October 1, the OCC’s Committee on Bank Supervision released its bank supervision operating plan (plan) for fiscal year 2021. The plan outlines the agency’s supervision priorities and highlights several supervisory focus areas including: (i) credit risk management; (ii) commercial and residential real estate concentration risk management, with a focus in areas heavily impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic; (iii) allowances for loan and lease losses; (iv) cybersecurity and operational resiliency; (v) Bank Secrecy Act/anti-money laundering compliance; (vi) compliance risk management related to Covid-19-related bank activities; (vii) Community Reinvestment Act performance; (viii) fair lending examinations and risk assessments; (ix) LIBOR phase-out preparations; (x) oversight of significant third-party relationships; (xi) change management to address significant operational changes; and (xii) payment systems products and services. The plan will be used by OCC staff members to guide the development of supervisory strategies for individual national banks, federal savings associations, federal branches, federal agencies, and technology service providers.
The OCC will provide updates about these priorities in its Semiannual Risk Perspective, as InfoBytes previously has covered.
Fed issues ANPR on CRA modernization
On September 21, the Federal Reserve Board (Fed) issued an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) inviting public comment on its approach for modernizing the regulations that implement the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). The Fed’s ANPR follows a final rule to modernize the regulatory framework implementing the CRA issued by the OCC in May (covered by a Buckley Special Alert), which was met by opposition from community coalitions and House Democrats (covered by InfoBytes here and here). Neither the FDIC nor the Fed joined in promulgating the OCC’s final rule, which is technically effective October 1, 2020, but provides for at least a 27-month transition period for compliance based on a bank’s size and business model.
According to the Fed, the ANPR’s objectives are to increase the clarity, consistency and transparency of CRA supervisory expectations and standards, while minimizing data collection burdens. The following are key takeaways from the ANPR:
- Promoting financial inclusion. The ANPR seeks feedback on ways to strengthen regulations and evaluate how banks meet the needs of low- and moderate-income (LMI) communities and address inequities in credit access. The ANPR proposes, among other things, (i) ways to encourage more activities that support minority depository institutions (MDIs), Community Development Financial Institutions, as well as women-owned financial institutions and low-income credit unions outside of a bank’s assessment area; (ii) seeks feedback on additional incentives for investing in and partnering with MDIs; and (iii) requests input on expanding geographic areas for community development activities to allow banks to receive special CRA credit for activities in areas with high unmet needs.
- Metrics. The ANPR introduces a metrics-based approach to bring greater clarity, consistency, and transparency to how banks are assessed and rated. The ANPR proposes assessing banks’ CRA performance using a Retail Test and a Community Development Test with options to be evaluated under certain subsets based on their size. According to the Fed’s fact sheet, the metrics would be “tailored to local market conditions and adjust[ed] automatically to reflect structural economic differences and changes over the business cycle.” Additionally, the proposed retail lending metrics formulas use the number of a bank’s loans, rather than the dollar amount of those loans, to avoid weighting larger loans more heavily than smaller ones.
- Internet banks. The ANPR contemplates defining an internet bank for CRA purposes and allowing such internet banks to delineate nationwide assessment areas to “more holistically capture their banking activities.”
- CRA deserts. The ANPR considers designating “CRA deserts”—“areas with little bank presence and corresponding lesser availability of banking products and services and community development activities”—and allowing banks to receive credit for community development activities in designated areas of need outside of their assessment areas. The ANPR also suggests providing additional consideration if a bank operates a branch in a designated banking desert within an assessment area.
- CRA-approved activities. The ANPR proposes publishing an illustrative, non-exhaustive list of community development activities that qualify for CRA consideration and seeks feedback on an activity pre-approval process.
- Small banks. The ANPR proposes eliminating the current intermediate small bank category and establishing an asset-size threshold of $750 million or $1 billion to distinguish between small and large retail banks. Currently, the asset threshold between small and intermediate small banks is $326 million, and the threshold between intermediate small and large banks is $1.305 billion. Small retail banks could continue to be evaluated under the current CRA framework but would have the option to be evaluated under certain of the new subtests. Small banks are also exempt from additional deposit and certain other data collection requirements.
- Consistent approach. Fed Chair Jerome Powell released a statement stressing that the ANPR “is an important step forward in laying a foundation for the [Fed, OCC, and FDIC] to build a shared, modernized CRA framework that has broad support.”
Comments on the ANPR are due 120 days after publication in the Federal Register.
OCC announces settlements with former senior executives over account openings
On September 21, the OCC announced settlements with three former senior executives of a national bank for their roles in the bank’s incentive compensation sales practices. According to consent orders (see here and here), the OCC alleged that two of the individuals either “knew or should have known” about the sales misconduct problem and its root cause, but allegedly failed to, among other things, appropriately consider concerns about the “unreasonably high sales goals” and the associated risks of incentivizing sales of secondary deposit products. The third individual—previously in charge of identifying human resource risks—allegedly approved incentive compensation plans that overly incentivized sales and failed to respond to or escalate information received about unreasonable sales goals. In addition to paying civil money penalties, the individuals—who did not admit or deny wrongdoing—have each agreed to cooperate with the OCC in any investigation, litigation, or administrative proceeding related to sales misconduct at the bank.
As previously covered by InfoBytes, in January, the OCC reached settlements with three other former senior executives in January for their alleged roles in the bank’s sales practices misconduct, and issued notices of charges against five others.
OCC: Banks may hold stablecoins in reserve accounts
On September 21, the OCC released Interpretive Letter 1172, stating that national banks may hold stablecoin in reserve accounts as a service to bank customers and may engage in activity incidental to receiving the deposits. According to the OCC, issuers of stablecoins—a type of cryptocurrency backed by an asset such as a fiat currency—have a desire to place assets in reserve accounts with national banks to “provide assurance that the issuer has sufficient assets backing the stablecoin in situations where there is a hosted wallet.” Hosted wallet, as defined by the OCC, is “an account-based software program for storing cryptographic keys controlled by an identifiable third party.” Because national banks are authorized to receive deposits and provide “permissible banking services to any lawful business they choose,” they may provide these services to issuers of stablecoins, as long as they comply with applicable laws and regulations. (In Interpretive Letter 1170, the OCC approved the holding of cryptocurrency on behalf of customers, covered by InfoBytes here.) Specifically, the OCC noted that national banks should ensure that deposit activities comply with the Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money laundering regulations. Moreover, a national bank must also “identify and verify the beneficial owners of legal entity customers opening accounts.” Lastly, the OCC emphasized that stablecoin reserves “could entail significant liquidity risks,” and national banks may consider entering into contractual agreements with stablecoin issuers to “verify and ensure that the deposit balances held by the bank for the issuer are always equal to or greater than the number of outstanding stablecoins issued by the issuer.” This guidance does not apply to stablecoin transactions involving un-hosted wallets.