Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Updates FAQs Regarding the Small Business Lending Rule
The FAQs document, which reflects the final rule as issued on March 20, 2023, was last updated September 14, 2023. The small business lending rule FAQs have not been updated to reflect any effects of ongoing litigation involving the final rule.
cfpb_small-business-lending-frequently-asked-questions.pdf (consumerfinance.gov)
CFPB Releases Update to Small Business Lending Rule Filing Instructions Guide
On August 17, 2023, the CFPB released an update to the Filing Instructions Guide for Small Business Lending Data. The updates include:
- Reordering certain demographic information codes to better correlate with Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data, per request from industry,
- Minor wording clarifications to the pricing information data point, and
- Minor administrative updates to the validation IDs.
The changes were also incorporated into the Small Business Lending Rule Data Points Chart.
Small Business Lending Data Updates | Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (consumerfinance.gov)
Federal Reserve Announces that its New System for Instant Payments, the FedNow® Service, is Now Live
The FedNow service went live on July 20, 2023. Banks and credit unions of all sizes can sign up and use this tool to instantly transfer money for customers at any time of the day or day of the year.
“The Federal Reserve built the FedNow Service to help make everyday payments over the coming years faster and more convenient,” said Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell. “Over time, as more banks choose to use this new tool, the benefits to individuals and businesses will include enabling a person to immediately receive a paycheck, or a company to instantly access funds when an invoice is paid.”
https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/other20230720a.htm
Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering (BSA/AML): Updated Sections of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) BSA/AML Examination Manual
The FFIEC updated the following sections of the FFIEC Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering (BSA/AML) Examination Manual:
- “Special Information Sharing Procedures to Deter Money Laundering and Terrorist Activity”
- “Due Diligence Programs for Correspondent Accounts for Foreign Financial Institutions”
- “Due Diligence Programs for Private Banking Accounts”
- “Prohibition on Correspondent Accounts for Foreign Shell Banks; Records Concerning Owners of Foreign Banks and Agents for Services of Legal Process”
- “Summons or Subpoena of Foreign Bank Records; Termination of Correspondent Relationship; Records Concerning Owners of Foreign Banks and Agents for Service of Legal Process”
- “Reporting Obligations on Foreign Bank Relationships With Iranian-Linked Financial Institutions”
These updates reflect the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s continued commitment to, and leadership on, interagency reform efforts that improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the BSA/AML regime and reduce unnecessary burden on banks.
https://www.occ.gov/news-issuances/bulletins/2023/bulletin-2023-26.html
Bureau Posts Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) Filing Instructions Guide (FIG) for Data Collected in 2024
The CFPB has added the HMDA FIG for data collected in 2024 and a Supplemental Guide for Quarterly Filers for 2024 to its FFIEC HMDA Resources web page.
CFPB Issues Supervisory Highlights, Issue 30, Summer 2023
Issue 30, Summer 2023 Supervisory Highlights notes recent supervisory findings of abusive acts or practices that supervised institutions engaged in across multiple products. The Unfair, Deceptive, or Abusive Acts or Practices related findings included in this report cover the areas of:
- Auto Origination: Deceptive marketing of auto loans.
- Auto Servicing: Collecting interest on fraudulent loan charges; cancelling automatic payments without sufficient notice; Requiring consumers to pay other debts to redeem vehicles.
- Consumer Reporting: CRC duty to maintain reasonable policies and procedures designed to limit furnishing consumer reports to person with permissible purpose(s); Furnisher duty to review policies and procedures and update them as necessary to ensure their continued effectiveness; Furnisher duty to conduct reasonable investigations of direct disputes; Furnisher duty to notify consumers that a dispute is frivolous or irrelevant; Furnisher duty to inform consumers of information needed to investigate frivolous or irrelevant disputes; Furnishers’ failure to provide adequate address disclosures for notices.
- Debt Collection: Unlawful attempts to collect medical debt; Deceptive representations about interest payments.
- Deposits: Unfair line of credit usage and fees.
- Fair Lending: Pricing discrimination; Discriminatory lending restrictions.
- Information Technology: Failure to implement adequate information technology security controls.
- Mortgage Origination: Loan originator compensation: Differentiations based on product type; Loan disclosures – failure to reflect the terms of the legal obligations on disclosures.
- Mortgage Servicing: Loss mitigation timing violations; Misrepresenting loss mitigation application response times; Assigning continuity of contact personnel; Spanish language acknowledgement notices missing information; Failure to provide critical loss mitigation information; Failure to credit payment sent to prior servicer after transfer; Failure to maintain policies and procedures reasonably designed to identify missing information after a transfer.
- Payday and Small Dollar Lending: Unreasonable limitations on collection communications; False collection threats; Unauthorized wage deductions; Misrepresentations regarding the impact of payment of debt in collections; Risk of harm to consumers protected by the Military Lending Act; Failure to retain evidence of compliance with disclosure requirements under Regulation Z.
- Remittances: Failure to develop policies and procedures to ensure compliance with the Remittance Rule’s error resolution requirements.
https://www.consumerfinance.gov/compliance/supervisory-highlights/
