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The Federal Reserve Board has announced that Michael S. Barr will step down from his position as Federal Reserve Board Vice Chair for Supervision, effective February 28, 2025, or such earlier time as a successor is confirmed. Barr will continue to serve as a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.

The Board stated it "does not intend to take up any major rulemakings until a vice chair for supervision successor is confirmed."

The CFPB this morning announced it has sued Vanderbilt Mortgage & Finance for setting families up to fail when they borrowed money to buy a manufactured home. The CFPB alleges that Vanderbilt’s business model ignored clear and obvious red flags that the borrowers could not afford the loans. As a result, many families found themselves struggling to make payments and meet basic life necessities. Vanderbilt charged many borrowers additional fees and penalties when their loans became delinquent, and some eventually lost their homes. The CFPB is seeking to stop Vanderbilt’s illegal practices and obtain relief for the harmed homeowners.

Vanderbilt Mortgage & Finance, Inc. is a nonbank financing company based in Maryville, Tennessee that originates loans for manufactured homes across the country. Vanderbilt is a unit of Clayton Homes, Inc., which is the largest manufactured home builder in the U.S. and a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, Inc., the multinational conglomerate based in Omaha, Nebraska.

The CFPB alleges that Vanderbilt failed to make reasonable, good-faith determinations of borrowers’ ability to repay loans, as legally required. Specifically, the lawsuit alleges Vanderbilt:

• Manipulated lending standards when borrowers did not make sufficient income
• Fabricated unrealistic estimates of living expenses
• Made loans to borrowers it projected could not pay

The CFPB alleges that Vanderbilt violated the Truth in Lending Act and Regulation Z.

• Complaint against Vanderbilt

The FDIC has released its January 2025 list of banks recently examined for compliance with the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). Of the 72 banks listed, 66 received evaluation ratings of Satisfactory.

Hill Bank & Trust Co., Weimar, Texas, received a "Needs to Improve" rating. These five banks received ratings of "Outstanding":

• Garfield County Bank, Jordan, Montana
• Mt. McKinley Bank, Fairbanks, Alaska
• Open Bank, Los Angeles, California
• Spring Bank, Brookfield, Wisconsin
• Truist Bank, Charlotte, North Carolina

The links above are to the banks' CRA evaluations.

The Federal Trade Commission has reported it will require software provider accessiBe to pay $1 million to settle allegations that it misrepresented the ability of its AI-powered web accessibility tool to make any website compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) for people with disabilities.

New York-based accessiBe Inc. and accessiBe Ltd. (accessiBe) market and sell a web accessibility software plug-in called accessWidget that the company has said can make any website compliant with WCAG, a comprehensive set of technical criteria used to assess website accessibility. The company made the claims on its website, on social media, and in articles on third-party websites formatted to look like impartial and objective reviews.

According to the FTC's complaint, despite the company’s claims, accessWidget did not make all user websites WCAG-compliant and these claims were therefore false, misleading, or unsubstantiated, in violation of the FTC Act. In addition, the complaint alleges that accessiBe deceptively formatted third-party articles and reviews to appear as if they were independent opinions by impartial authors and failed to disclose the company’s material connections to the supposedly objective reviewers.

• Proposed consent order
• Request for public comment on proposed consent order (published today)

The Treasury Department has reported that OFAC has sanctioned Integrity Technology Group, Incorporated, a Beijing-based cybersecurity company, for its role in multiple computer intrusion incidents against U.S. victims. These incidents have been publicly attributed to Flax Typhoon, a Chinese malicious state-sponsored cyber group that has been active since at least 2021, often targeting organizations within U.S. critical infrastructure sectors.

Chinese malicious cyber actors continue to be one of the most active and most persistent threats to U.S. national security, as highlighted in the most recent Office of the Director of National Intelligence Annual Threat Assessment. These actors continue to target U.S. government systems as part of their efforts, including the recent targeting of Treasury’s own IT infrastructure.

For identification information on Integrity Technology, see the January 3, 2025, BankersOnline OFAC Update.

The OCC has released a list of Community Reinvestment Act performance evaluations that became public during the month of December 2024. Thirteen of the institutions on the list received a CRA rating of Satisfactory.

Ratings of Outstanding were listed for —

• The First National Bank of Sparta, Sparta, Illinois
• First Seacoast Bank, Dover, New Hampshire
• Metropolitan Bank and Trust Company, New York, New York

The National Credit Union Administration has announced it has permanently prohibited two individuals from participating in the affairs of any federally insured depository institution.

• Demetria Baker, former chief executive officer at Lynchberg Municipal Federal Employees Credit Union (LMFECU), Lynchburg, Virginia, was issued a prohibition order after a finding that she made a series of loans to herself and her son that were in violation of LMEFCU policies for approval, documentation, or underwriting, and that a significant amount of cash was removed from a cash drawer that was only accessible to her.
• Teresa Paulo, a former employee at Southern Pine Credit Union, Valdosta, Georgia, received a notice of prohibition after she was convicted and sentenced for aggravated identity theft and bank fraud resulting from her misconduct at the credit union

The Federal Housing Finance Agency has reported that U.S. house prices rose 0.4 percent in October, according to the FHFA’s seasonally adjusted monthly House Price Index. House prices rose 4.5 percent from October 2023 to October 2024. The previously reported 0.7 percent price growth in September remained unchanged.

“Annual house price gains have been trending down since February, stabilizing around 4.5 percent during the last three months,” said Dr. Anju Vajja, Deputy Director for FHFA’s Division of Research and Statistics. “Even with elevated house prices and mortgage rates putting continued pressure on affordability, house prices continued to grow at a steady rate, likely due to a historically low inventory of homes for sale.”

OFAC has announced a $22,172 settlement with SkyGeek Logistics, Inc. SkyGeek agreed to settle its potential civil liability for six apparent violations of OFAC sanctions related to Russia’s aerospace and technology sectors.

In 2024, SkyGeek attempted two refunds and sent four shipments to two Specially Designated Nationals in the United Arab Emirates sanctioned in connection with these sectors. The settlement amount reflects OFAC's determination that the apparent violations were non-egregious and that certain of its conduct was voluntarily self-disclosed.

Additional details are available in OFAC's enforcement release, which indicates that two of SkyGeek's apparent transaction violations were blocked and reported to OFAC by a financial institution.

The Treasury Department on Tuesday reported OFAC sanctions actions.

• A Russian judge was sanctioned for her role in the arbitrary detention of Moscow city councilor and human rights defender Alexei Gorinov. The judge was designated under the authority of Executive Order 13818, which builds upon and implements the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act and targets perpetrators of serious human rights abuse and corruption.
• OFAC also designated a subordinate organization of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and a Moscow-based affiliate organization of the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) and its director under the authority of Executive Order 13848 (U.S. election interference). As affiliates of the IRGC and GRU, these actors aimed to stoke socio-political tensions and influence the U.S. electorate during the 2024 U.S. election.

For the names and identification information of the designated parties, see Tuesday's BankersOnline OFAC Update.