Top Story Lending Related

Our monthly review of the Federal Reserve Board's archive of Community Reinvestment Act evaluation reports determined that the Reserve Banks made public nine evaluations of state chartered member banks in February. Eight of those evaluations received ratings of Satisfactory.

We congratulate ANB Bank, Denver, Colorado, whose evaluation received a rating of Outstanding.

HUD has announced a 90-day extension of its foreclosure moratorium on Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-insured single family mortgages in the areas of Los Angeles County, California, devastated by the January 2025 wildfires.

The moratorium prohibits mortgage servicers from initiating or completing foreclosure actions on FHA-insured single family forward or Home Equity Conversion mortgages in the Los Angeles County Presidentially Declared Major Disaster Area (PDMDA) through July 7, 2025. The moratorium was originally set to expire on April 8, 2025.

Yesterday, SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler announced plans to put American citizens first by ending taxpayer benefits for illegal aliens and moving SBA offices out of sanctuary cities.

The SBA will issue a new policy requiring SBA loan applications to include a citizenship verification provision to ensure only legal, eligible applicants can access SBA programs. Lenders will be required to confirm that applicant businesses are not owned in whole or in part by an illegal alien.

Loeffler's statement also said the SBA will relocate six of its regional offices currently in municipalities that [allegedly] do not comply with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Over the coming months, the Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, New York City, and Seattle regional offices will be moved to less costly, more accessible locations that better serve the small business community and comply with federal immigration law.

The CFPB has published a Notice [90 FR 11495] in today's Federal Register extending the comment period on the Bureau's Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) on Identity Theft and Coerced Debt. The comment period was scheduled to end today. Today's notice extends the comment period to end April 7, 2025.

The Federal Trade Commission has reported it has secured an initial win in its case against Seek Capital and the company’s founder and CEO, Roy Ferman, after the U.S. Court for the Central District of California granted the FTC’s motion for a preliminary injunction.

Under the preliminary injunction, Seek Capital is prohibited from making false claims related to small business loans or lines of credit and is forbidden from contacting any consumers whose information the company obtained before February 20, 2025.

According to the FTC’s complaint filed in November 2024, Seek Capital targets new and aspiring small business owners looking for loans or lines of credit to open or grow their businesses. The company falsely advertises that it can secure business loans or lines of credit and instead charges clients thousands of dollars simply to open credit cards in the owners’ names. These actions have cost small business owners more than $37 million.

The FDIC has released a March 2025 list of 56 financial institutions it recently examined for compliance with the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). We congratulate four institutions whose evaluations were rated Outstanding:

• Bank of Bluffs, Bluffs, Illinois
• First Commerce Bank, Lakewood, New Jersey
• Pinnacle Bank, Fort Worth, Texas
• United Cumberland Bank, Whitley City, Kentucky

The remaining 52 institutions on the list received ratings of Satisfactory.

The Federal Trade Commission has reported that as a result of an FTC lawsuit, a federal court has temporarily halted the operations and frozen the assets of a phantom debt collection scheme and its operators. The scheme has operated under numerous names, including Blackrock Services, Blackstone Legal Group, Capital Legal Services, Quest Legal Group, Viking Legal Services, and others.

According to the FTC’s complaint, the operators of this scheme are Ryan and Mitchell Evans and their affiliated companies. Debt collectors working for the scheme’s operators and their affiliated companies have sent consumers deceptive warning and collection letters or called them directly, claiming that consumers owed a debt of some kind and threatening legal action, wage garnishment, negative impacts to consumers’ credit, and even arrest if they don’t pay. The debts described in these letters and calls never existed, according to the complaint, and the defendants have no basis to make legal threats toward consumers.

The FTC’s complaint asks the court to stop the defendants’ unlawful conduct and provide redress to consumers harmed by the scheme.

Yesterday, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency released a list of 26 Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) performance evaluations that became public during February. Sixteen of the evaluations were rated "Satisfactory." Ten were rated "Outstanding." The ten institutions that earned Outstanding ratings were:

• Capital One, National Association, McLean, VA
• Collinsville Building and Loan Association, Collinsville, IL
• First Neighbor Bank, National Association, Toledo, IL
• The Granger National Bank, Granger, TX
• Lake Shore Savings Bank, Dunkirk, NY
• Lyons Federal Bank, Lyons, KS
• Ponce Bank, Bronx, NY
• The Security National Bank of Enid, Enid, OK
• Shamrock Bank, National Association, Coalgate, OK
• Wells Fargo Bank, National Association, Sioux Falls, SD

The OCC has opened registrations for its upcoming virtual and in-person workshops for board directors and senior management of national community banks and federal savings associations.

The OCC examiner-led workshops provide practical training and guidance to directors and senior management of national community banks and federal savings associations to support the safe and sound operation of community-based financial institutions.

Six workshops are listed. Two virtual sessions are scheduled in March. In-person and virtual sessions are scheduled in cities across the country between April 8 and October 16, 2025.

The FDIC has issued the lists of institutions scheduled for a Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) examination during the second quarter 2025 and third quarter 2025.