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OCC and Federal Reserve Board Extend Independent Foreclosure Review Program Deadline
On August 2, the Federal Reserve Board and the OCC announced that the deadline for borrowers to seek review of their mortgage foreclosures under the Independent Foreclosure Review program has been extended to December 31, 2012. Under the program, an eligible borrower can have his or her foreclosure reviewed by independent consultants to determine whether the borrower was financially injured due to errors, misrepresentations, or other deficiencies in the foreclosure process. An injured borrower may be eligible for compensation or other remedies. The program originally was scheduled to close April 30, 2012, but has been extended numerous times over the past year.
Federal Reserve Board Finalizes Rule Allowing Debit Fraud-Prevention Adjustments
On July 27, the Federal Reserve Board issued a final rule that amends Regulation II. The rule allows a debit issuer that is subject to the interchange fee standards to charge—in addition to interchange fees—a fraud-prevention fee to defray costs associated with implementing policies and procedures that reduce fraudulent electronic debit transactions. The fee cannot exceed one cent per transaction, unchanged from the Federal Reserve’s interim final rule on this issue. The final rule details fraud-prevention program requirements that an issuer must meet in order to charge the fee. An issuer charging such a fee must annually review and update its fraud-prevention program and notify its payment card networks that it complies with the rule’s fraud prevention standards. The rule takes effect October 1, 2012.
Federal Reserve Board Provides Guidance on Abandoned Foreclosures
The Federal Reserve Board recently issued a supervisory letter advising covered banking institutions about risk management practices related to decisions not to complete foreclosure proceedings after they have been initiated. The letter advises covered institutions that their policies and practices governing abandoned foreclosures should include (i) notification to borrowers, (ii) extensive communication methods comparable to those used when attempting to collect payment, (iii) notification to local authorities, and (iv) a process for obtaining information about collateral value of the property.
Federal Reserve Board Initiates Acquisition Guidance Program
On July 12, the Federal Reserve Board issued supervisory guidance outlining a new optional process for a supervised institution to request feedback on a potential bank and nonbank acquisition or other transactional proposal prior to the submission of a formal application or notice. The supervision and regulation letter explains that under the new optional process, supervised institutions may submit “pre-filings” to the appropriate Reserve Bank. Pre-filings can include inquiries seeking (i) advice about a specific aspect of a proposal, business plans or pro forma financial information related to a potential filing, or presentations outlining specific potential proposals, (ii) feedback on draft transactional and structural documents, and (iii) guidance regarding the type of filing required or the individuals or entities that would need to join a filing. In most cases, pre-filing and submitted information will be reviewed within 60 days. The guidance cautions that Federal Reserve staff review will focus on the specific request, and a review is not intended to identify or resolve all issues or concerns related to a possible future application or notice. The Federal Reserve also notes that it is not inviting negotiations on the structure of a potential proposal or for resolving significant issues of policy or law as part of this advance guidance program.
Regulators Extend Foreclosure Review, Issue Financial Remediation Framework, Publish Status Report
On June 21, the OCC and the Federal Reserve Board announced that the deadline for borrowers to seek review of foreclosures under the Independent Foreclosure Review program has been extended through September 30, 2012. At the same time, the regulators released a Financial Remediation Framework that sets out specific recommendations for remediation of financial injury for servicing errors, depending on the type of error and whether the foreclosure was in progress or complete at the time of remediation. Independent consultants will use the Framework to recommend remediation for financial injury identified during the Independent Foreclosure Review. Each servicer will prepare its own remediation plan based on independent consultant recommendations, which must be approved by the federal banking regulators. Also on June 21, the OCC published its second interim report on the status of the Independent Foreclosure Review and actions required under the April 2011 consent orders.
Federal Agencies Announce New Mortgage-Related Policies to Support Military Homeowners
On June 21, the CFPB, the federal prudential banking regulators, and the FHFA announced new policies to support servicemember homeowners. The CFPB, the Federal Reserve Board, the FDIC, the NCUA, and the OCC issued joint guidance that identifies specific servicing practices deemed by regulators to present risks to servicemembers. For servicemember homeowners who have received Permanent Change of Station Orders, the guidance instructs servicers to maintain adequate policies and procedures disallowing the identified practices. The guidance also informs servicers that if an agency determines that a servicer has engaged in any acts or practices that are unfair, deceptive, or abusive, or that otherwise violate federal consumer financial laws, the agency will take appropriate supervisory and enforcement actions. Concurrent with the regulators’ announcement, the FHFA announced that military homeowners with Permanent Change of Station Orders and with Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac loans will be eligible to sell their homes in a short sale even if they are current on their mortgage. Under the new policy, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will not pursue a deficiency judgment or any cash contribution or promissory note from covered servicemembers for any property purchased on or before June 30, 2012.
Federal Bank Regulators Seek Comment on Three Proposed Regulatory Capital Rules, Finalize Market Risk Rule
On June 12, the Federal Reserve Board, the OCC, and the FDIC jointly issued three proposed rules, which would implement the risk-based and leverage capital requirements in the Basel III framework and relevant provisions mandated by the Dodd-Frank Act. The first proposed rule would, among other things, (i) raise the minimum regulatory capital levels; (ii) introduce an additional common equity capital buffer; and (iii) adopt a stricter definition of capital. Taken together, these requirements would require banking organizations to increase the quality and quantity of their regulatory capital. The second proposed rule incorporates aspects of Basel II’s Standardized Approach to enhance the risk-sensitivity of a banking organization’s risk-weighted assets calculations. In addition, the second proposed rule sets forth alternatives that would replace the use of external credit ratings, a change required by Section 939A of the Dodd-Frank Act. The third proposed rule would apply to banking organizations that are currently subject to the advanced approaches rule or to the market risk rule, and for the first time, to savings and loan holding companies that meet the relevant size, foreign exposure, and trading activity thresholds. This rule seeks to enhance the risk-based capital rules’ sensitivity to trading risks and also would eliminate the use of external ratings as required by Section 939A of the Dodd-Frank Act. Comments on each of the proposed rules can be submitted through September 7, 2012.
Concurrent with the proposed rules, the federal regulators released a final rule regarding market risk. By amending the calculation of market risk, the final rule seeks to better characterize the risks facing a particular institution and to help ensure the adequacy of capital related to the institution’s market risk-related positions. The final rule incorporates comments received in response to a January 2011 proposed rule, as well as a December 2011 amended proposed rule, and applies to a banking organization with aggregate trading assets and liabilities equal to 10 percent of total assets, or $1 billion or more. According to the regulators, the most significant change from the proposals relates to the methods for determining the capital requirements for securitization positions. The final rule will impose greater capital requirements on the more subordinate tranches in a securitization because the final rule mechanism to calculate the capital charges on securitization exposures when the underlying pool of assets demonstrates credit weakness was altered to focus on delinquent exposures rather than on cumulative losses. This rule takes effect January 1, 2013.
CFPB, Prudential Regulators Release Supervisory Coordination Memorandum
On June 4, the CFPB and the federal banking prudential regulators the Federal Reserve Board, the National Credit Union Administration, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Office of Comptroller of the Currency jointly released a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) meant to facilitate coordination of supervisory activities. The Dodd-Frank Act grants the CFPB exclusive authority to examine insured depository institutions and insured credit unions with more than $10 billion of total assets (and their affiliates) for compliance with federal consumer financial laws. The prudential regulators retained supervisory authority for all other applicable laws for such institutions, and all supervisory responsibilities for institutions with $10 billion or less in total assets. The Dodd-Frank Act also requires the CFPB and the prudential regulators to share supervisory information and work to minimize regulatory burden by coordinating examinations. The recent MOU seeks to implement those statutory requirements by establishing guidelines for simultaneous examinations and a framework for sharing certain supervisory information. The MOU also sets forth, among other things, a process by which covered institutions can request separate examinations.
Federal Reserve Establishes Securities Holding Companies Registration Procedures
On May 30, the Federal Reserve Board issued a final rule that establishes procedures for nonbank companies that own at least one registered securities broker or dealer to register for supervision by the Federal Reserve Board as a securities holding company (SHC). The Dodd-Frank Act eliminated supervision of SHCs by the SEC and provided SHCs with the ability to seek supervision by the Federal Reserve Board to satisfy the requirements of foreign regulators or foreign law that companies be subject to consolidated supervision in the United States. The final rule includes capital and financial condition requirements and specifies other information necessary for registration. Once registered, an SHC would be supervised and regulated as if it were a bank holding company. However, the restrictions on nonbanking activities in section four of the Bank Holding Company Act would not apply to the supervised SHC.
Federal Reserve Releases Interchange Fee Comparison Results
On May 1, the Federal Reserve Board released a comparison of interchange fees by payment network for 2011. The Federal Reserve Board plans to publish this information annually to assists card issuers and merchants in choosing payment card networks. The results, which also are expected to assist policymakers in evaluating the impact of the interchange fee regulations that took effect in October 2011, show each network provider’s average fee per transaction and the portion of each transaction value attributable to the fee. On an aggregate level, the average interchange fee declined substantially for non-exempt issuers from 43 cents to 24 cents following implementation of the regulation. For exempt issuers, the average fee remained at 43 cents.