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CFPB Succession: Bureau reportedly no longer examining for MLA compliance
According to reports citing “internal agency documents,” acting Director of the CFPB Mick Mulvaney intends to cease supervisory examinations of the Military Lending Act (MLA), contending the law does not explicitly prescribe the Bureau the authority to examine financial institutions for compliance with the MLA. In 2013, amendments to the MLA granted enforcement authority to the same agencies with administrative enforcement power under TILA, including the Bureau, but these amendments did not also provide these same agencies with the statutory authority to supervise institutions for compliance with the MLA. The Bureau currently includes the MLA in the statutory- and regulation-based procedures section of the Supervision and Examination Manual and has not released a formal statement in response to reports of this supervisory change.
CFPB updates “workpapers” section of Supervision and Examination Manual
In August, the CFPB released an updated version of the Supervision and Examination Manual, which includes minor changes to the workpapers section of the examination process and an updated scope summary template. According to the manual, workpapers are the records documenting the review conducted by examiners to reach conclusions about the financial institution’s compliance with federal consumer protection laws. The manual emphasizes that “[a]ll information collected and all records created during the review that are used to support findings and conclusions could potentially be included in the workpapers” and all workpapers must be reviewed and signed off by the examiner in charge. The Bureau requires all workpapers and related documentation to be maintained in electronic form.
Washington state updates mortgage provisions of Consumer Loan Act
On July 24, the Washington Department of Financial Institutions adopted new mortgage-related provisions of the state’s Consumer Loan Act (CLA). In addition to technical changes and certain definition modifications, the rulemaking, among other things, (i) adds a requirement that if electronic records are stored using a closed service, the service must be located in the U.S. or its territories; (ii) prohibits certain servicing activities, such as receiving payments and collection activities, from being conducted outside the U.S. or its territories; and (iii) requires servicers to maintain a compliance management system with the functionalities that are described in the CFPB’s Supervision and Examination Manual. The rulemaking is effective September 1.
OCC issues update to Comptroller’s Handbook
On July 23, the OCC issued Bulletin 2018-20, which announced revisions to the “Capital and Dividends” booklet of the Comptroller’s Handbook as mandated by the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act. The revised booklet—which applies to all OCC-supervised bank examinations—includes changes to the regulatory capital rule, reflects the integration of the OTS into the OCC, and includes expanded examination procedures for capital, dividends, and capital adequacy.
Treasury releases recommendations for modernizing the Community Reinvestment Act
On April 3, the U.S. Treasury Department released recommendations to the Federal Reserve Board, the FDIC, and the OCC (CRA regulators) on suggestions for modernizing the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). As previously covered in a Buckley Sandler Special Alert, Treasury released a report last June indicating that the CRA should be modernized to better target statutory and regulatory responses to financial risks faced by U.S. consumers and ensure that the benefits of the CRA investments are aligned with the needs of the communities being served. Last month the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report recommending Treasury consider GAO’s findings when conducting its review. (See previous InfoBytes coverage here.)
The April memorandum of recommendations addresses findings from Treasury’s comprehensive assessment of the CRA framework and focuses on four key areas: assessment areas, examination clarity and flexibility, the examination process, and bank performance. Specifically, the recommendations include (i) updating the definitions of “geographic assessment areas to reflect the changing nature of banking arising from changing technology, customer behavior, and other factors”; (ii) improving the flexibility of the CRA examination process to increase clarity in examiner guidance and improve evaluation criteria to increase CRA rating determination transparency and effectiveness; (iii) addressing the timing and issuance of performance evaluations to increase banks’ accountability when planning CRA activity; and (iv) identifying performance incentives to encourage banks to meet the credit and deposit needs of their entire communities, including low- and moderate-income areas. The memorandum solicited input from stakeholders such as consumer advocacy groups, financial industry members, and the CRA regulators.
FFIEC issues Examination Modernization Project update
On March 22, the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) issued an update on the status of its Examination Modernization Project. According to FDIC FIL-11-2018 and the accompanying press release, the project’s objective is to identify and assess measures to improve the community bank safety and soundness examination process, pursuant to the Economic Growth and Regulatory Paperwork Reduction Act’s review of regulations. According to feedback from selected supervised institutions and examiners, agencies should ensure examiners understand the importance of clear, transparent communication objectives during the examination process. As a result, the FFIEC indicated the following four areas with the potential for “meaningful supervisory burden reduction”:
- regulator communication objectives should be highlighted and reinforced before, during, and after examinations;
- technology should be leveraged to “shift, as appropriate, examination work from onsite to offsite”;
- examinations should continue to be tailored “based on risk”; and
- electronic file transfer systems should be improved “to facilitate the secure exchange of information between institutions and supervisory offices or examiners.”
The FFIEC also announced plans to take further action on other areas of improvement.
CFPB releases HMDA formatting tool and updates filing instructions
On February 1, the CFPB launched their 2018 Loan/Application Register (LAR) Formatting Tool (the “Tool”). According to the website, the Tool is intended to assist small volume lenders in creating an electronic file to submit to the HMDA Platform. The Tool is only intended to be used by institutions that are not able to format their HMDA data into a “pipe delimited text file.” The Bureau also announced minor updates to the 2018 Filing Instructions Guide for HMDA. As previously covered by InfoBytes, the CFPB’s supervisory examinations of 2018 HMDA data will be “diagnostic” to help “identify compliance weaknesses, and will credit good-faith compliance efforts.” The CFPB does not intend to impose penalties with respect to errors reported in the 2018 data.
FINRA releases 2018 regulatory and examinations priorities letter
On January 8, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) published its Annual Regulatory and Examination Priorities Letter (2018 Letter), which focused on several broad issues within the securities industry, including improving the examination program to “implement a risk-based framework designed to better align examination resources to the risk profile of [] member firms.” As previously covered in InfoBytes, last July FINRA360 (a comprehensive self-evaluation and organizational improvement initiative) prompted the organization to announce plans currently underway to enhance operations by consolidating its existing enforcement teams into a single unit. In the 2018 Letter, FINRA announced ongoing efforts to work with member firms to understand the risks and benefits of fintech innovation such as blockchain technology, as well as the impact initial coin offerings (ICOs) and digital currencies have on broker-dealers.
Additional areas of regulatory and examination focus for FINRA in 2018 will include: (i) fraudulent activities and suspicious activity report filing requirements; (ii) business continuity planning; (iii) protection and verification of customer assets, including whether firms have implemented adequate controls and supervision methods along with measuring the effectiveness of cybersecurity programs; (iv) anti-money laundering monitoring and surveillance resources and policies and procedures; and (v) the role firms and other registered representatives play when effecting transactions in cryptocurrencies and ICOs—specifically with regard to the supervisory, compliance and operational infrastructure firms implement to “ensure compliance with relevant federal securities laws and regulations and FINRA rules.”
FDIC’s OIG Issues Evaluation of Agency’s Implementation of ATR/QM and Loan Originator Rules
On December 6, the FDIC’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) released an evaluation report to examine how the agency implements certain consumer protection rules concerning consumers’ ability to repay mortgage loans and limits for loan originator compensation. The OIG report, FDIC’s Implementation of Consumer Protection Rules Regarding Ability to Repay Mortgages and Compensation for Loan Originators (EVAL-18-001), focused on the FDIC’s Division of Depositor and Consumer Protection (DCP), which is responsible for implementing the Ability to Repay/Qualified Mortgage (ATR/QM) and Loan Originator rules and tracking violations of the rules. The report found that the DCP “incorporated these rules into its examination program, trained its examiners, and communicated regulatory changes to FDIC-supervised institutions.” However, based on a sample of 12 examinations, the OIG also determined that examination workpapers generally needed improvement, finding (i) inconsistent documentation by examiners on decisions to exclude compliance testing for the ATR/QM and Loan Originator rules, and (ii) in certain circumstances, incomplete, incorrect, or improperly stored examiners’ workpapers, “which would preclude someone independent of the examination team from fully understanding examination findings and conclusions, based on the workpapers alone.”
OIG further noted that, because DCP’s examination practices did not include tracking the number of institutions subject to the rules or recording how frequently examiners tested for compliance, any identified variances among the FDIC’s six regional offices could not be assessed for significance due to lack of context.
As a result of these findings, the OIG made several recommendations for the DCP to strengthen its compliance examination process, including:
- “research potential reasons for the regional variances in the number of rule violations by banks in the FDIC’s six regional offices”;
- “track the aggregate number of FDIC-supervised institutions in each region that are subject to the rules”;
- “track how often examiners test for compliance with the rules”; and
- ‘‘take steps to improve workpaper documentation and retention.”
The DCP agreed to implement these recommendations June 30, 2018.
NCUA Issues Final Rules Regarding Appeals Procedures; Proposes Rule Regarding Capital Planning and Stress Testing
On October 30, the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) issued a final rule expanding the number of material supervisory determinations that can be appealed to the NCUA Supervisory Review Committee (SRC). Under the rule, federally insured credit unions (FICUs) may appeal examination-related determinations that may significantly affect capital, earnings, operating flexibility, or level of supervisory oversight. The effective date for the final rule is January 1, 2018.
On October 30, the NCUA also proposed changes to rules covering capital planning and stress testing requirements for covered credit unions (see previously InfoBytes coverage on proposed changes to stress tests by other federal agencies). The proposal would allow FICUs with over $10 billion in assets to conduct their own stress tests in accordance with NCUA requirements and report the results in their capital plan submissions. The specific testing requirements are tiered and dependent on various asset size and capital planning cycles. Comments about the NCUA proposed rule must be received on or before December 29.