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The FDIC, OCC, and Federal Reserve Board have jointly announced they will extend until October 30, 2024, the comment period on a request for information on bank-fintech arrangements involving banking products and services.

The agencies are seeking input on the nature and implications of bank-fintech arrangements and effective risk management practices. Extending the comment period will allow the public more time to consider the request, prepare comments, and address the questions posed by the agencies. Comments were originally due by September 30, 2024.

• Federal Register Extension Notice

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Wednesday announced it had ordered TD Bank, N.A. to pay $7.76 million in consumer redress to thousands of victims for its illegal actions regarding credit reporting. The Bureau said the bank for years repeatedly shared inaccurate, negative information about its customers to consumer reporting companies. The information included systemic errors about credit card delinquencies and bankruptcies. In addition to the redress, the CFPB is ordering TD Bank to pay a $20 million civil money penalty.

Specifically, the CFPB said TD Bank harmed consumers by—

• Failing to fix its credit card reporting errors
• Sharing fraudulent information with consumer reporting companies after the bank identified hundreds of thousands of deposit account openings that were either confirmed or suspected to be fraudulent
• Failing to investigate and resolve consumer disputes

For additional information and the details of the Bureau's consent order, click HERE.

The Federal Communications Commission has published [89 FR 73321] a proposed rule with steps to protect consumers from the abuse of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in robocalls alongside actions that clear the path for positive uses of AI, including its use to improve access to the telephone network for people with disabilities.

Specifically, the proposal would define AI-generated calls, adopt new rules that would require callers disclose to consumers when they receive an AI-generated call, adopt protections for consumers to ensure that callers adequately apprise them of their use of AI-generated calls when consumers affirmatively consent to receive such calls, and adopt protections to ensure that positive uses of AI that have already helped people with disabilities use the telephone network can thrive without threat of Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) liability. The document also seeks additional comment and information on developing technologies that can alert consumers to unwanted or illegal calls and texts, including AI-generated calls.

Comments on the proposal are due by October 10, 2024, and reply comments are due by October 25, 2024.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency yesterday released an online risk analysis tool that provides geographic estimates for physical risks from various types of natural disasters as well as nationwide data on housing and the mortgage market.

The tool — known as the Mortgage Loan and Natural Disaster Dashboard— is intended to give property owners, community leaders, financial institutions, policymakers, and other stakeholders better insight into which areas of the country are most likely to incur greater damages from hurricanes, flooding, wildfires, and other types of natural hazards. Users can combine FHFA’s Public Use Database (PUDB) with data on previous disasters and other analysis from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). They can identify areas of the country with elevated disaster risk based on several factors, and which of those areas have concentrations of properties financed with loans acquired by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Home Loan Banks.

The dashboard utilizes data from three publicly available sources. The PUDB provides a geographic breakdown of loans acquired by FHFA’s regulated entities. FEMA’s National Risk Index identifies communities most at risk for 18 types of natural hazards. The third source, FHFA’s Duty to Serve High-Needs Rural Areas data, pinpoints rural areas in the country that are characterized by a high concentration of poverty and substandard housing conditions.

The data on mortgages were updated as of 2022 and the data on past natural disasters reflected in the online tool were updated as of 2023, while the Census tracts were drawn from the 2020 U.S. Census. Dashboard users can view nationwide mortgage data at the Census-tract level overlaid with expected annual damages for 18 different types of natural disasters.

The Federal Trade Commission reports that new data show a massive increase in the amount of money consumers report losing to scammers involving Bitcoin ATM machines. Since 2020, the amount consumers reported losing has increased nearly tenfold to over $110 million in 2023.

In a newly released data spotlight, the FTC says that fraud losses to Bitcoin ATMs have topped $65 million in just the first six months of 2024. During this timeframe, consumers over the age of 60 were more than three times as likely as younger adults to report losing money to Bitcoin ATM scams. Across all ages, the median loss reported in the first half of this year was a staggering $10,000.

The majority of scam losses involving Bitcoin ATMs come as a result of government impersonation, business impersonation, and tech support scams. The lies told by scammers vary, but they all create some urgent justification for consumers to take cash out of their bank accounts and put it into a Bitcoin ATM. As soon as consumers scan a QR code provided by scammers at the machine, their cash is deposited straight into the scammers’ crypto account.

The FFIEC has announced that, on behalf of its members, the FFIEC will sunset the Cybersecurity Assessment Tool on August 31, 2025. The FFIEC announcement includes links to other resources that can assist financial institutions in their self-assessment activities.

The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) has issued a new booklet to help examiners assess information technology practices.

The “Development, Acquisition, and Maintenance” booklet provides examiners with fundamental examination expectations regarding entities’ development and acquisition planning and execution, governance and risk management, and maintenance and change management practices. It discusses the interconnectedness of an entity’s assets and processes and those of its third-party service providers along with information to help examiners assess whether management adequately addresses risks and complies with applicable laws and regulations.

The booklet reflects the changing technological environment and increasing need for security and resilience. It also highlights the importance of providing examiners with current information regarding safety and soundness, consumer protection, and provision of secure and resilient business services to customers. This new booklet replaces the “Development and Acquisition” booklet issued in April 2004.

The Treasury Department and the IRS have announced that Maine will be the 20th state to join IRS Direct File for the 2025 filing season.

Following this year's Pilot Program in 12 states that saw 140,000 taxpayers claim more than $90 million in refunds and save an estimated $5.6 million in filing costs using the new free online filing tool, Treasury and the IRS announced the expansion of Direct File as a permanent offering. Treasury and the IRS have been working with interested states to offer Direct File to their taxpayers with Maine becoming the latest state to join, following Oregon, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Connecticut, North Carolina, and Wisconsin. More than 120,000 Mainers will be eligible to use the free online filing tool next Filing Season.

The CFPB has made available its beta platform for the small business lending data collection rule under section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act and invites the participation of financial institutions and their technology partners to test the beta platform and share feedback with the CFPB on their experience. Participants will be provided the opportunity to create a Login.gov account, upload sample data test files, review validation results, and explore the beta platform's features. Feedback on the experience will help the Bureau identify areas for potential enhancement and improve the data filing process. Teams can work in an early test environment at their own pace and convenience.

The beta program is for testing purposes only. Data submitted on the beta platform will not be considered for compliance with small business lending data reporting requirements. Test files to be used can be found in the Bureau's test file repository. Participants are welcome to test using other sample files; however, it is important that they do not use actual customer data.

• Beta program access
• Getting started with the beta platform

The OCC, Federal Reserve, FDIC, NCUA, CFPB, FHFA, CFTC, SEC, and Treasury Department have published [89 FR 67890] in today's Federal Register, their previously announced notice of proposed rulemaking to establish data standards to promote interoperability of financial regulatory data across these agencies. Final standards established pursuant to this rulemaking will later be adopted for certain collections of information in separate rulemakings by the agencies or through other actions taken by the agencies. The agencies are proposing this rule as required by the Financial Data Transparency Act of 2022.

Comments on the proposal will be accepted for 60 days, through October 21, 2024.