November 22, 2017


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Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray said he will step down from the agency on Nov. 30.

Cordray, who is rumored to be planning a run for governor of his home state of Ohio, made the announcement in an email to CFPB staff.

A White House spokesperson said President Trump will name an acting CFPB director "at the appropriate time," with a change in leadership likely to usher in a dramatic shift in the agency's regulatory and enforcement focus.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) and Acting Comptroller of the Currency Keith Noreika are among the names that have been floated to take over the bureau.
 
 
A group of bipartisan senators, led by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Mike Crapo (R- Idaho), unveiled a legislative package designed to curb Dodd-Frank rules and provide regulatory relief to community banks.
 
The legislative package would ease several mortgage rules and prudential regulations for community, mid-sized and regional banks, as well as enhance consumer protections for veterans, seniors and homeowners. Specific provisions include providing QM status to loans held in portfolio at banks and credit unions under $10 billion, expanding the upper limit for banks eligible for the 18-month exam cycle from $1 billion to $3 billion, and raising the upper limit for applicability of the Fed's Small Bank Holding Company Policy Statement from $1 billion to $3 billion.
 
 
The federal banking agencies finalized minor amendments to their respective Community Reinvestment Act regulations to address recent changes to Regulation C, which implements the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act.Specifically, the amendments revise the definition of "home mortgage loan" and "consumer loan" and update the requirements for CRA public files to reflect changes to Reg C. In addition, the rule also eliminates references to the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP), a crisis-era initiative by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to help communities and local governments redevelop foreclosed properties. The NSP ended in 2016.
 
The amendments become effective on January 1, 2018.
Exemption Threshold Raised For Higher-Priced Mortgage Loan Appraisal Requirements     
 
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) announced that the threshold for exempting loans from special appraisal requirements for higher-priced mortgage loans during 2018 will increase from $25,500 to $26,000.
 
The threshold amount will be effective January 1, 2018, and is based on the annual percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) as of June 1, 2017.
 
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 amended the Truth in Lending Act to add special appraisal requirements for higher-priced mortgage loans, including a requirement that creditors obtain a written appraisal based on a physical visit to the home's interior before making a higher-priced mortgage loan. The rules implementing these requirements contain an exemption for loans of $25,000 or less and also provide that the exemption threshold will be adjusted annually to reflect increases in the CPI-W. If there is no annual percentage increase in the CPI-W, the agencies will not adjust this exemption threshold from the prior year. However, in years following a year in which the exemption threshold was not adjusted, the threshold is calculated by applying the annual percentage change in CPI-W to the dollar amount that would have resulted, after rounding, if the decreases and any subsequent increases in the CPI-W had been taken into account.
HUD Urged to Amend Disparate-Impact Rule   
 
A coalition of House lawmakers calls for the Department of Housing and Urban Development to amend its disparate-impact rule to comport with limitations imposed by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Under HUD's rule on Fair Housing Act violations, lenders may be held liable for neutral practices that have a disparate impact on certain classes of borrowers, even if the lenders have no intent to discriminate.

In a letter to Secretary Ben Carson, the 18 House Financial Services Committee members cited the case of Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v. The Inclusive Communities Project Inc.

In that case, the Supreme Court held that disparate-impact cases cannot rely on statistics alone and that the accuser must also demonstrate a causal connection between a challenged practice and the statistical disparity affecting a protected class.

HUD is evaluating its regulations to identify costly and unnecessary rules for repeal under President Trump's Feb. 24 executive order.
   
Reports of  ATM's Being Hacked
 
According to reports from the Bankers Bank of the West in Denver, CO, a number of ATM attacks have occurred within the last week at banking locations in that region. The thieves are targeting Diebold ATMs where they access the top hat and install "jackpot" malware which takes control of the ATM and dispenses all of the bills in the cassettes.
 
Each of the banks affected believed they had software on the ATM to lock the USB ports which should have prevented these attacks.  However, the ATMs either did not have the software or the thieves were able to circumvent it. 
 
Although, these reports are from locations in the western united states it appears the thieves may be moving to other states.
 
 
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