Background The Dodd-Frank Act abolished the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) and transferred its supervisory and rulemaking authority to the OCC, FDIC, and FRB — the FRB now supervises savings and loan holding companies, the OCC supervises federal savings associations, and the FDIC supervises state-chartered savings associations. See 12 USC 5412; 12 USC 1813(q)(2)(C). When…

On Thursday, July 17, 2014, the federal banking agencies held a webinar on the revisions made to the November 2013 Interagency Questions and Answers Regarding Community Reinvestment that were issued on November 15, 2013, and the revised Interagency Large Institution CRA Examination Procedures that were issued on April 18, 2014. The webinar was recorded and…

CFPB Establishes Policy of Equal Treatment for Same-Sex Marriages A recent CFPB blog post released a staff memorandum from Director Cordray establishing the CFPB’s policy as to same-sex marriages in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on same sex marriages and the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). The United States v. Windsor struck down…

On Tuesday, June 17, 2014, the CFPB and Federal Reserve Board co-hosted a webinar on the TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure Rule, which will go into effect on August 1, 2015. The webinar is the first in a planned series to help explain the rule and its procedural requirements. This webinar provided an overview of the rule,…

The CFPB has issued a final rule interpreting the ability-to-repay (ATR) rule in certain situations where a mortgaged property has been transferred to a successor-in-interest. The rule spells out when a servicer may substitute or add a successor as the new obligor on an existing mortgage without triggering the ATR and closing disclosure requirements under…

The Illinois General Assembly passed a number of bills this session that may be of interest to banks and their compliance personnel. Please note that these bills have yet to be signed by the Governor, and they are likely to have varying effective dates. Bill Harmonizes Hazard Insurance Rules Senate Bill 3423 amends the Illinois…

The Internal Revenue Service has released a final rule under Internal Revenue Code Section 67(e) that requires certain fiduciary fees to be “unbundled” for tax purposes.  The following explanation of the rule is provided by the American Bankers Association: Background: Generally when computing a taxpayer’s taxable income, miscellaneous itemized deductions are allowed only to the…

The CFPB has issued a proposed rule to amend its new mortgage rules, including changes to the ability-to-repay (ATR) and qualified mortgage (QM) rules. The most significant change is a proposed “cure mechanism” for loans that are originated with the good faith expectation that they will qualify as QM loans, but which actually exceed the points…

The CFPB has issued a proposed rule amending Regulation P to remove the requirement to provide annual privacy notices for financial institutions that satisfy certain conditions. Such institutions would be able to meet the annual privacy notice requirement by posting the privacy notice on their websites and mailing the notice to customers on request. Specifically,…

President Obama has signed into law a bill (H.R. 3370) amending the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012. The new law, the Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act of 2014, will ease compliance burdens and will slow the flood insurance rate increases required by the Biggert-Waters Act. Escrow Requirements The Biggert-Waters Act required the federal…