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The NMLS has posted a reminder that its annual renewal period for Mortgage Loan Originators ends tomorrow (January 31). The NMLS system will not be available on January 1 (New Year's Day). MLOs who miss the renewal deadline can apply for reinstatement from January 2 through midnight EST February 28, 2025.

The OCC, Federal Reserve Board, and FDIC on Friday issued a revised interagency statement to supersede the “Extension of the Revised Statement Regarding Status of Certain Investment Funds and their Portfolio Investments for Purposes of Regulation O and Reporting Requirements under Part 363 of FDIC Regulations.” The prior interagency statement was issued on December 15, 2023, and was set to expire on January 1, 2025.

The revised interagency statement explains that the agencies will continue to exercise discretion not to take action against banks or against certain companies that sponsor, manage, or advise investment funds and institutional accounts (fund complexes) that become principal shareholders of banks (principal shareholder fund complexes). The discretion relates to certain extensions of credit by banks to portfolio companies of the principal shareholder fund complex (fund complex–controlled portfolio companies) that otherwise would violate Regulation O, 12 CFR 215, provided certain eligibility criteria are satisfied. The agencies also clarify the eligibility criteria in the revised interagency statement.

• FDIC FIL-85-2024
• OCC Bulletin 2024-37

The FDIC on Friday made public its November 2024 administrative enforcement actions against banks and individuals. There were two orders of prohibition, two consent orders, three orders for civil money penalties (CMPs), one combined order of prohibition and order for restitution, and one notice of charges for assessment of a CMP.

Assessment of Civil Money Penalties:

• Spring Valley Bank, Wyoming, OH, a $19,800 CMP for violations of the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) and of Regulation C for failing to follow HMDA reporting requirements.
• Rockland Trust Company, Rockland, MA, a $10,000 CMP for engaging in a pattern or practice of violations of the Flood Disaster Protection Act and section 339.3(a) of the FDIC's Rules and Regulations, in 10 instances by making, increasing, extending, and/or renewing designated loans secured by personal property not covered by flood insurance by failing to require borrowers to get flood insurance covering contents pledged as security when contents are owned by a non-borrower guarantor.
• Citizens State Bank, Hudson, WI, a $6,000 CMP for engaging in a pattern or practice of committing violations of the FDPA and Part 339 of the FDIC Rules and Regulations, 12 C.F.R. Part 339, by failing to obtain flood insurance on a building securing a designated loan at the time of the origination of one loan; failing to obtain adequate flood insurance at the time of the origination of four loans; and failing to follow force placement flood insurance procedures in four instances

Notice of Charges and of Hearing for Assessment of Civil Money Penalty:

• CBW Bank, Weir, KS, related to a determination that the bank violated laws and regulations by failing to maintain an adequate Anti-Money Laundering/Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) compliance program, which led to multiple incidents where the bank repeatedly violated the Bank Secrecy Act and its implementing regulations. If the bank fails to timely request a hearing on the FDIC's charges, a CMP of $20,448,000 will be imposed.

Assessment of Civil Money Penalty and Removal/Prohibition Order:

• Carlos Acosta, formerly a senior vice president and Chief auditor of Citizens Business Bank, Ontario, CA, for recording confidential meetings, including meetings with FDIC and state examiners, without consent, and attempting to extort bank executives. CMP: $70,000.
• Bryan E. Dalton, a former loan officer at RiverBank, Pocahontas, AR, in an adjudicated decision, a $35,000 CMP and a notice of prohibiiton for a scheme by which he misappropriated $87,951.50 from the accounts of four loan customers.

Removal/Prohibition Orders:

• Stacia S. Wilson, former vice president at St. Clair County State Bank, Osceola, MO, after a finding that she created false and fictitious loans using bank customer information without their knowledge, misappropriated funds to fund payments on those loans, and used the proceeds of the loans for her personal gain.
• Jessica Ann Marshall, former branch manager at Bank of Idaho, Idaho Falls, ID, for stealing cash and embezzling funds from the bank in the amount of $345,774.66, and falsifying documents and directing bank employees to falsify documents to hide her actions.

The CFPB has released its fifteenth annual report to Congress on college credit cards as required by the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure Act (CARD Act), augmented with information on trends related to student deposit and prepaid card accounts offered and advertised to students through partnerships between colleges and financial service providers. The College Banking and Credit Card Agreements report is informed by account agreements and data from 2022 through 2023, covering over 1.4 million such accounts.

In addition to this year’s findings, the CFPB highlights other products and partnership between financial service providers and colleges which may create risks to students.

The CFPB has filed for public inspection with the Office of the Federal Register a final rule scheduled for publication on December 27, 2024, to adjust the asset-size exemption in the official commentary interpreting requirements of Regulation C (Home Mortgage Disclosure Act) threshold for banks, savings associations, and credit unions. The threshold is adjusted, effective January 1, 2025, from $56 million to $58 million.

Institutions with assets of $58 million or less as of December 31, 2024, are exempt from collecting data in 2025.

[Editor's note: The 12/27/2024 issue of the Federal Register was not yet available at 8:30 a.m. EST on 12/27/2024. UPDATE: Published at 89 FR 105429 on 12/27/2024. The amendment has been posted to section 1003.2(g) of Regulation C in the BankersOnline Regulations section.]

The Small Business Administration has announced it has granted Small Business Lending Company (SBLC) licenses to four lending institutions committed to expanding access to capital to underserved markets. The addition of four new SBLCs — Cooperative Business Services, A10 Capital, Lafayette Square, and Stonehenge Capital — broadens the availability of SBA 7(a) loans in low-income and other underserved communities nationwide from their locations in Ohio, Idaho, Washington, D.C., and Louisiana, respectively.

The Federal Reserve Board reports it will soon seek public comment on significant changes to improve the transparency of its bank stress tests and to reduce the volatility of resulting capital buffer requirements.

The Board intends to propose changes that include, but are not limited to: disclosing and seeking public comment on all of the models that determine the hypothetical losses and revenue of banks under stress; averaging results over two years to reduce the year-over-year changes in the capital requirements that result from the stress test; and ensuring that the public can comment on the hypothetical scenarios used annually for the test, before the scenarios are finalized. These proposed changes are not designed to materially affect overall capital requirements.

For the 2025 stress test, the Board plans to take immediate steps to reduce the volatility of the results and begin to improve model transparency. The Board intends to begin the public comment process on its comprehensive changes to the stress test during the early part of 2025.

The CFPB has reported it has sued Rocket Homes Real Estate LLC, JMG Holding Partners LLC and 45 real estate brokerage affiliates, and Jason Mitchell to stop them from providing incentives to real estate brokers and agents in exchange for steering homebuyers to Rocket Mortgage, LLC for loans.

The CFPB alleges that Rocket Homes pressured real estate brokers and agents not to share valuable information with their clients concerning products not offered by Rocket Mortgage, such as the availability of down payment assistance programs, which often save homebuyers thousands of dollars. The CFPB is suing Rocket Homes, The Mitchell Group, and Jason Mitchell to stop the kickback scheme, provide consumer redress, and obtain a civil penalty which will be deposited into the CFPB’s victims relief fund.

The CFPB’s investigation found that Rocket Homes gave referrals and other incentives to real estate brokerages under an agreement or understanding that the real estate brokers and agents would refer real estate settlement business to Rocket Mortgage and a separate Rocket affiliate called Amrock, which handles title, closing, and escrow services.

The Bureau's complaint alleges that the defendants committed multiple violations of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA).

The CFPB published [89 FR 104398] a final rule in today's Federal Register amending the official commentary to its Regulation Z to make annual adjustments to the asset-size thresholds exempting certain creditors from the requirement to establish an escrow account for a higher-priced mortgage loan (HPML). The exemption threshold for creditors and their affiliates that regularly extended covered transactions secured by first liens is adjusted to $2.717 billion (up from $2.640 billion) and the exemption threshold for certain insured depository institutions and insured credit unions with assets of $10 billion or less is adjusted to $12.179 billion (up from $11.835 billion).

The amendments will be effective on January 1, 2025. They have been incorporated into the BankersOnline Regulations page for § 1026.35 of Regulation Z.

The FDIC, OCC, and Federal Reserve Board have jointly announced the 2025 updated Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) "small bank" and "intermediate small bank" asset-size thresholds.

As a result of the 2.91 percent increase in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) for the period ending in November 2024, the CRA asset-size thresholds for small banks and intermediate small banks are:

• A small bank is an institution that, as of December 31 of either of the prior two calendar years, had assets of less than $1.609 billion.
• An intermediate small bank is a small institution with assets of at least $402 million as of December 31 of both of the prior two calendar years and less than $1.609 billion as of December 31 of either of the prior two calendar years.

These thresholds are in effect from January 1, 2025, through December 31, 2025. A list of the current and historical asset-size thresholds is available here.

• Federal Register Notice