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President Trump issues Executive Order delegating sanctions implementation authority; OFAC issues new CAATSA - Russia-related FAQ
On September 20, President Trump announced the issuance of Executive Order 13849 (E.O. 13849), “Authorizing the Implementation of Certain Sanctions Set Forth in the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA),” pursuant to national emergencies previously declared in Executive Orders 13660, 13694, and 13757. E.O. 13849 grants authority to the Secretary of the Treasury to take certain actions to implement the sanctions against identified persons, including the promulgation of regulations. Among other things, E.O. 13849 prohibits: (i) any U.S. financial institution from making loans or extending credits to sanctioned persons “totaling more than $10,000,000 in any 12-month period, unless the person is engaged in activities to relieve human suffering and the loans or credits are provided for such activities”; (ii) any foreign exchange transactions, subject to U.S. jurisdiction, in which the sanctioned person has any interest; and (iii) transfers of credit or payments between, by, or through financial institutions for the benefit of a sanctioned person subject to U.S. jurisdiction. E.O. 13849 further describes the actions that can be taken to implement the sanctions.
In response to E.O. 13849, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control published a new CAATSA - Russia-related FAQ providing additional clarifying information.
Find continuing InfoBytes covered on CAATSA-related sanctions here.
Class certification granted to hedge fund investors
On September 14, a New York federal district court granted class certification to a group of shareholder investors suing an American hedge fund management firm and two of its senior executives on the grounds that the investors were misled about a government investigation into the company’s activities in Africa. In finding that the proposed class met all the requirements for certification, the court certified a class of investors that held some of the more than 100 million outstanding shares between February 2012 and August 2014, the time period in which the firm allegedly violated the Securities Exchange Act. Plaintiffs claim that the firm told investors it was not under any pending judicial or administrative proceeding that might have a material impact on the firm, when in fact it was under DOJ and SEC investigation over allegations that its employees were bribing government officials in Africa. The allegations against the firm were made public in 2014 media reports detailing government scrutiny into its dealings in Africa.
Click here for prior FCPA Scorecard’s coverage of this matter.
New York Attorney General issues Virtual Markets Integrity Report, following cryptocurrency integrity initiative
On September 18, the New York Attorney General’s office announced the results of its Virtual Markets Integrity Initiative, a fact-finding inquiry into the policies and practices of platforms used by consumers to trade virtual or “crypto” currencies. As previously covered in InfoBytes, last April questionnaires were sent to 13 virtual asset trading platforms to solicit information on their operations, policies, internal controls, and safeguards to protect consumer assets. The resulting Virtual Markets Integrity Report finds that virtual asset trading platforms vary significantly in the comprehensiveness of their response to the risks facing the virtual markets, and presents three broad areas of concern: (i) the potential for conflicts of interest due to platforms engaging in various overlapping business lines that are not restricted or monitored in the same way as traditional trading environments; (ii) a lack of protection from abusive trading platforms and practices; and (iii) limited protections for customer funds, such as the insufficient availability of insurance for virtual asset losses and platforms that do not conduct any type of independent auditing of virtual assets. According to the report, the Attorney General’s office also referred three platforms to the New York Department of Financial Services for potential violations of the state’s virtual currency regulations.
CFPB studies geographic patterns in credit invisibility
On September 19, the CFPB released a new Data Point report from the Office of Research titled, “The Geography of Credit Invisibility,” which examines geographic patterns in the prevalence of “credit invisible” consumers, a term for those who do not have a credit record maintained by a national credit reporting agency, or have a credit record that is deemed to have too little or too old of information to be treated as “scorable” by widely used credit scoring models. The report studies whether the geographic location of a consumer’s residence is correlated with the likelihood of remaining credit invisible and aims to “aid policymakers and advance the conversation around potential causes and solutions.” Among other things, the report found:
- credit invisibility may be higher for geographic tracts near universities due to their concentration of adults under 25 who may not have established a credit record yet;
- rural areas have the most credit invisibility per capita;
- consumers are less likely to use a credit card as an entry product to establishing a credit record in rural and low-to-moderate income areas;
- credit invisibility was more prevalent in areas with less internet access as many products are originated through online services; and
- there is little relationship between distance to the nearest bank branch and the occurrence of credit invisibility.
The CFPB previously published two other Data Point reports on the subject: “Credit Invisibles” in 2015 and “Becoming Credit Visible” in 2017.
OCC seeks comments on notice of proposed rulemaking to raise recovery planning standards threshold to $250 billion
On September 19, the OCC issued a notice of proposed rulemaking to revise its 2016 guidelines on recovery planning standards for insured national banks, insured federal savings associations, and insured federal branches. The OCC seeks to raise the average total consolidated assets threshold from $50 billion to $250 billion, and give banks above the threshold 12 months instead of 18 months to comply with the guidelines. The proposed rule would also make technical amendments to remove outdated compliance dates. According to the OCC, a threshold increase would tailor the focus on “institutions that present greater systemic risk to the banking system.” The proposal is also consistent with the scope of the FDIC and Federal Reserve Board’s resolution planning threshold, which was raised from $50 billion to $250 billion as part of the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act.
Comments on the proposal are due by November 5.
Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac update servicing guides
On September 18, Fannie Mae issued SVC-2018-06, which updates the Servicing Guide to include, among other things, changes to reduce servicer costs and risks and simplify certain loan modification options. Updates include: (i) relieving servicers of the responsibility for paying property taxes and ground rents on acquired properties, effective October 1, and co-op fees on properties acquired on or after October 1; (ii) effective immediately, removing the requirement for servicers to receive Fannie Mae approval when modifying a Texas Constitution Section 50(a)(6) loan under the Cap and Extend Modification for Disaster Relief policy (does not apply to reverse mortgages); (iii) clarifying servicing and subservicing transfer requirements, effectively immediately (iv) revising evaluation notices and solicitation letters, in alignment with Freddie Mac (described below), that take effect immediately but must be implemented by January 1, 2019; (v) adjusting maximum allowable foreclosure attorney fees for certain loans secured by properties in New Mexico and Hawaii for matters active as of September 18; and (vi) consolidating and aligning policies related to project liability and fidelity insurance to be implemented no later than January 1, 2019.
On the same day, Freddie Mac released Guide Bulletin 2018-14 announcing, among other things, servicing updates concerning (i) revised borrower evaluation notices and solicitation letters that take effect immediately but must be implemented by January 1, 2019; (ii) a new temporary servicer reimbursement process effective for property inspections related to insurance loss settlements conducted on or after September 1; (iii) changes to the Servicer Success Scorecard, effective July 1, 2019; and (iv) reporting requirements for third-party foreclosure sale redemptions, effective December 1.
Fannie Mae updates Reverse Mortgage Loan Servicing Manual
On September 18, Fannie Mae updated the Reverse Mortgage Loan Servicing Manual with changes related to a servicer’s responsibilities for paying escrow-related expenses for certain properties in Fannie Mae’s REO inventory. According to RVS-2018-03, Fannie Mae will now pay property taxes for all acquired proprieties in REO inventory and servicers are no longer required, except when directed by Fannie Mae, to pay co-op fees and assessments or ground rents for certain properties in REO inventory. The update applies to all property taxes and ground rents for all acquired properties effective on October 1, and applies to co-op fees and assessments for all acquired properties with a foreclosure sale or mortgage release date occurring on or after October 1.
District Court partially dismisses student loan co-signer claims alleging violations of federal and D.C. debt-collection laws
On September 10, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia partially granted a student loan administrator’s and a law firm’s joint motion to dismiss, and granted a lender’s motion for judgment on the pleadings, in a case involving a student loan co-signer’s claims brought under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), D.C. debt collection statute, and state law. The court rejected the plaintiff’s argument that her claims were tolled and dismissed the FDCPA claims against the loan administrator and firm because they were time-barred. The court also dismissed the plaintiff’s claim that the firm and the lender violated several provisions of the D.C. debt collection statute, concluding that the plaintiff failed to allege sufficient facts to support an allegation that the defendants willfully violated the statute. However, the court found that the plaintiff included sufficient facts to support a claim under the D.C. statute against the loan administrator based on allegations that the administrator, among other things, (i) concealed its “lack of authorization to sue”; (ii) concealed the fact that it was acting as a collector without the authority to enforce the terms of the loan; and (iii) has a “long, well-documented history of filing debt collection lawsuits falsely claiming to be the lender and/or real party in interest.” Finally, the court held that plaintiff’s abuse of process and malicious prosecution actions failed to state a claim against any of the defendants.
FDIC issues NPRM regarding treatment of reciprocal deposits
On September 12, the FDIC issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) and request for comments on the treatment of certain institutions’ reciprocal deposits to implement Section 202 of the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act (EGRRCPA). According to the accompanying Financial Institution Letter, FIL-47-2018, Section 202 of EGRRCPA amends Section 29 of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act to except a capped amount of reciprocal brokered deposits from treatment as brokered deposits for certain insured depository institutions. Under the proposal, well-capitalized and well-rated institutions are not required to treat reciprocal deposits as brokered deposits up to the lesser of 20 percent of their respective total liabilities or $5 billion. Additionally, institutions that are not well capitalized or well rated also may exclude reciprocal deposits from their brokered deposits by maintaining reciprocal deposits at or below a special cap equal to the average amount of their reciprocal deposits held at quarter-end during the last four quarters preceding the quarter that the institution fell below well capitalized or well rated. Comments are due within 30 days of publication in the Federal Register.
California updates foreign language disclosure requirements for mortgage modifications
On September 11, the California governor approved SB 1201, which amends the state civil code to, among other things, require any supervised financial institution that negotiates a mortgage loan modification with a borrower primarily in Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, or Korean and offers the borrower a final loan modification in writing, to deliver to the borrower at the same time, a specified form summarizing the modified terms in the same language as the negotiation. The amendments require the California Department of Business Oversight (CDBO) to make available—using CFPB and Fannie Mae forms as guidance—certain disclosures and forms in those specified languages.
The amendments are generally effective on January 1, 2019, with the amendments relating to the new written disclosures to become operative 90 days following the issuance of forms by the CDBO, but not before January 1, 2019.