By Cody Roberts, CRCM On November 24, 2017, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board), and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) (collectively, the Agencies) amended their regulations implementing the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). The Agencies modified the existing definitions of ‘‘home mortgage… View Article

by Elva M. Coffey-Sears, CRCM, CRP The TCPA was originally passed in 1991 to protect consumers from telemarketing calls. At that time, cellular phones were rare, texting was not an option, and users were billed by the minute for calls – both incoming and outgoing. In general, the TCPA prohibits making telemarketing calls using an… View Article

By Gina Ellis, CRCM Today’s fast paced news cycle makes it increasingly difficult to keep track of regulatory changes. You may be aware of a bipartisan regulatory reform package proposed by the Senate Banking Committee, S. 2155, The Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act. However, you may not know that the legislation includes… View Article

By Cody Roberts, CRCM On February 21, 2018, the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) issued the newest version of The Guide to HMDA Reporting: Getting It Right! (Guide).The previous version was dated April 2013. You can get the 327-page PDF version of the Guide. This version of the Guide takes into account the Home… View Article

by Elva M. Coffey-Sears, CRCM, CRP FinCEN announced that the changes to the Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) proposed in February 2017 will be implemented and effective in June 2018. The revisions do not impose any new regulatory requirements nor change the requirements relating to suspicious activity reporting. FinCEN is removing, revising and adding new fields… View Article

By Gina Ellis, CRCM The President and both houses of Congress extended the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) temporarily through February 8, 2018 and also authorized the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to honor all policy related transactions inadvertently accepted during the recent government shut down that occurred between January 20-22, 2018. FEMA issued implementation… View Article

By Gary Reed, Vice President – Customer Care Services Every day we have customers contact us for issues, questions, or to request enhancements for the different systems we support. Our clients can reach out to us via telephone or by e-mail. Additionally, our Co-Pilot clients can use our Ticket Tracker system. Using Ticket Tracker allows… View Article

By Cody Roberts, CRCM If there is a new year, there must be new compliance thresholds. Annual adjustments are made to various regulatory thresholds which are based on various consumer price indexes at defined times during the year. The following is a recap of these changes for 2018. HMDA The asset-size exemption threshold for HMDA… View Article

by Elva M. Coffey-Sears, CRCM, CRP As 2017 winds to a close, Compliance Officers are focused on confirming readiness for the revised HMDA rule and implementing processes for the 2018 Customer Due Diligence requirements (including Beneficial Ownership). While the CFPB deals with issues relating to Mulvaney’s appointment and his 30-day moratorium on new regulations, the… View Article

By Gina Ellis, CRCM So maybe you have completed your procedures for beneficial ownership identification or maybe you are still working on those requirements. But don’t forget another critical part of the new regulation effective May 11, 2018, will require Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) policy changes and procedures for the new “fifth pillar” customer due… View Article