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Fannie Mae Announces Expanded Servicer Training Program
On July 16, Fannie Mae announced its “Know Your Options Customer Care” program, through which Fannie Mae provides training for servicers’ call center employees in an effort to help prevent foreclosures. The program also offers servicers scripting for interactions with homeowners and assistance with quality control implementation. Fannie Mae has already implemented the program with 18 of its largest servicers and is now making the program available to all servicers through online webinars and related materials. Fannie Mae noted that those servicers that have participated in the free program have seen substantial increases in workouts.
Major Settlement Reached in Consolidated Interchange Fee Litigation
On July 13, the parties to the long-running consolidated class action litigation against the two major payment network providers and 17 banks filed a proposed settlement to resolve allegations that the defendants unlawfully conspired to fix the fees that merchants are charged each time a customer uses a card for a purchase, so-called “swipe” or “interchange” fees. Class Settlement Agreement, In re Payment Card Interchange Fee & Merchant Discount Antitrust Litigation, No. 05-MD-1720 (E.D.N.Y. Jul. 13, 2012). In total, the settlement is valued at $7.25 billion. Of that total amount, roughly $6 billion would be paid to a class of millions of merchants and certain individual merchants. Another $1.2 billion of the total amount would be used to provide merchants with a temporary reduction in interchange fees. Further, the agreement allows merchants, for the first time, to apply a surcharge to customer transactions processed over the payment networks.
State Law Update: Hawaii and California Take Actions on Mortgages and Privacy
California AG Announces Privacy Enforcement Unit. On July 19, California Attorney General Kamala Harris announced the creation of the Privacy Enforcement and Protection Unit. The unit will combine the various existing privacy functions of the California Department of Justice to centrally enforce and protect consumer privacy. The unit will pursue civil prosecution of state and federal privacy laws regulating the collection, retention, disclosure, and destruction of private or sensitive information by individuals, organizations, and the government. These include laws relating to cyber privacy, financial privacy, identity theft, and data breaches, among others. The new unit will reside within the eCrime Unit, which was created in December 2011 to identify and prosecute identity theft crimes, cyber-crimes and other crimes involving the use of technology.
California Expands Servicemember Protections. On July 13, California enacted AB 2476, which expands the period of time during which servicemembers are protected from high interest rates. Under current law, a creditor cannot charge, during a servicemember’s period of military service, an interest rate in excess of 6% on any obligation or liability incurred by a servicemember before that person’s entry into service. The bill expands the interest rate protections to prevent an increase in any such rate on a mortgage, trust deed, or other security in the nature of a mortgage for one year after the period of military service.
Hawaii Enacts Multiple Mortgage-Related Bills and Legislation to Protect Personal Information. Recently, Hawaii enacted a set of bills related to mortgage origination and servicing. With regard to mortgage origination, S.B. 2763 amends the state SAFE Act to reflect changes to the federal law and to adjust originator registration fees. With regard to mortgage servicers, H.B. 2502 allows the Commissioner of Financial Institutions to require registration with the NMLS and makes it unlawful for a servicer to provide loan modifications without first complying with certain licensing requirements. Another bill, H.B. 1875 makes numerous changes to the state’s foreclosure laws, largely implementing recommendations from the Mortgage Foreclosure Task Force created by the state legislature in 2010. Finally, with regard to mortgages, H.B. 2375 establishes criminal penalties for certain violations of the state’s Mortgage Rescue Fraud Prevention Act. Hawaii also recently enacted S.B. 2419, which prohibits businesses from scanning a customer’s identification card or driver’s license with an electronic device capable of obtaining information electronically encoded on that identification card, except for specific purposes.
Congress Acts on Bills Regarding Protection of Information Submitted to CFPB and ATM Fee Disclosure Requirements
On July 12, Representatives Renacci (R-OH) and Perlmutter (D-CO) introduced H.R. 6125, a bill that would amend the Federal Deposit Insurance Act to grant protections to documents and information submitted by banks and nonbanks to the CFPB and state bank and financial regulators. H.R. 4014, a similar bill, previously passed the House with broad bipartisan support. The House also recently passed by a wide margin H.R. 4367, a bill to eliminate the EFTA requirement that ATM providers attach a fee disclosure placard to their machines. On July 17, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Johnson (D-SD) introduced with the support of Ranking Member Shelby (R-AL) S. 3394, which combines versions of H.R. 4014 and H.R. 4367 for Senate consideration.
Bank Officers Charged With Concealing Nonperforming Assets
On July 11, four former bank officers and two of their former customers were indicted in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on eighteen counts of fraud. Indictment, United States v. Woodard, No. 12-105 (E.D. Va.). The indictment alleges that in the run-up to the financial crisis, the bank more than doubled its assets primarily through brokered deposits, while the directors administered a lending program that violated industry standards and the bank’s internal controls. In connection with the financial crisis, the indictment states, the bank’s loan portfolio deteriorated and the directors conspired to conceal the institution’s financial condition. Ultimately, the bank failed, leaving the federal government insurance fund to cover approximately $260 million in deposits, the indictment claims. In addition to the criminal charges, the U.S. Attorney is seeking forfeiture of the defendants’ assets. Other bank officers, employees, and customers already have pled guilty to related charges.
Federal Court Allows Shareholder Suit Alleging Concealment of Mortgage-Related Risks to Proceed
On July 11, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York declined to dismiss the majority of the claims brought by a putative class alleging that a national bank, certain of its current and former officers and directors, multiple underwriters, and the bank’s third-party accounting auditor, deliberately concealed the bank’s reliance on an electronic registry system and its exposure to MBS loan repurchase claims. Pa. Pub. Sch. Employee’s Ret. Sys. v. Bank of Am. Corp. No. 11-733, 2012 WL 2847732 (S.D.N.Y. Jul. 11, 2012). In this case, a state retirement system alleges on behalf of similarly situated shareholders that the bank misrepresented that it had “good title” to loans even though multiple courts had blocked the bank’s attempts to foreclosure based on the bank’s use of an electronic registry system. The court, in declining to dismiss these claims, held that the use of the registry system “clouded” the bank’s ownership of many loans, thereby causing the bank to publish misleading shareholder information. The court also declined to dismiss allegations that the defendants misstated or omitted the bank’s exposure to repurchase claims. Further, claims that the bank misled investors about its internal controls also survived. Several other claims, including certain claims against the directors and officers were dismissed without prejudice, while other certain other claims against the defendants were dismissed with prejudice.
CFPB Announces First Public Enforcement Action; Issues Related Compliance Bulletin
On July 18, the CFPB announced its first public enforcement action - a Consent Order entered into by a major credit card issuer to resolve allegations that the issuer’s vendors deceptively marketed ancillary products such as payment protection and credit monitoring. The OCC made a corresponding enforcement announcement and released a Cease and Desist Order and Civil Money Penalty to resolve related charges. Under the CFPB order, the issuer will refund approximately $140 million to roughly two million customers, and will pay a $25 million penalty. The OCC order requires restitution of approximately $150 million (of which $140 million overlaps with the CFPB order) and an additional $35 million civil money penalty. Under both agencies’ actions, the issuer is prohibited from selling and marketing certain ancillary products until it obtains approval to do so from the regulators, and the issuer must take specific actions to enhance compliance with consumer financial laws.
Concurrently, the CFPB issued Bulletin 2012-06, which states that the CFPB expects supervised institutions and their vendors to offer ancillary products in compliance with federal consumer financial laws. The guidance cites “CFPB supervisory experience [that] indicates that some credit card issuers have employed deceptive promotional practices when marketing” such products, including (i) failing to adequately disclose terms and conditions, (ii) enrolling customers without their consent, and (iii) billing for services not performed. The Bulletin reviews applicable federal law and outlines the compliance program components that the CFPB expects supervised institutions to maintain.
Senate Subcommittee Explores Money Laundering Vulnerabilities at Global Institutions
On July 17, the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, held a hearing to review money laundering and terrorist financing vulnerabilities that can emerge from certain international banking activities. In connection with the hearing, the Subcommittee released a report about its investigation into past money laundering and terrorist financing compliance failures at one multinational financial institution. The report notes that despite congressional efforts to strengthen anti-money laundering laws (AML), and financial institutions’ diligence in bolstering AML controls, money laundering risks associated with correspondent banking persist. Using the investigation and its findings as a case study, the report reiterates that effective AML compliance programs at U.S. banks should include written standards, sufficient and knowledgeable staff, effective training, and a positive compliance culture. With regard to specific issues that U.S. banks might face with regard to correspondent banking, the report recommends that U.S. banks implement programs that effectively (i) screen high-risk affiliates, (ii) prevent circumvention of OFAC prohibitions, (iii) avoid providing U.S. correspondent services to banks with links to terrorism, (iv) ensure traveler check controls restrict acceptance of suspicious bulk travelers checks, and (v) eliminate bearer share accounts. The report also identifies regulatory gaps and recommends that the OCC (i) treat AML deficiencies as a safety and soundness matter, (ii) develop a policy to coordinate internal divisions conducting AML examinations, (iii) consider the use of formal or informal enforcement actions to address mounting AML failures, and (iv) strengthen AML examinations by citing violations and focusing on specific business units and a bank’s AML program as a whole.
CFPB Releases Semiannual Regulatory Agenda
On July 16, the CFPB announced the release of its spring 2012 rulemaking agenda. The agenda lists the regulatory matters that the CFPB anticipates pursuing during the period June 1, 2012 through May 31, 2013. It also updates the CFPB’s first-ever such agenda, published as part of the fall 2011 Unified Agenda. For example, the updated agenda indicates that the CFPB expects to issue by January 2013, an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking regarding the registration of certain nonbank entities, whereas the fall 2011 agenda anticipated a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on this topic by March 2012. Similarly, the new rulemaking agenda updates the date by which the CFPB expects to take further action on developing regulations concerning the expanded HMDA data collection required by the Dodd-Frank Act from October 2012 to April 2013.
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.