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The Federal Trade Commission yesterday announced it has taken action against Global Circulation, Inc. (GCI), a Georgia-based debt collector that tricked consumers into paying more than $7.6 million in bogus debt by threatening them with jail time, harassing their family members, and other unlawful actions. In response to a federal court complaint filed against GCI and its owner, Kenneth Redon III, the court agreed to temporarily halt the company’s operation and ordered it to turn its assets over to a court-appointed receiver.

In its complaint, the FTC alleges that GCI and Redon contacted consumers under a number of fictitious company names, including Total Mediation Solutions, Total Consumer Solutions, and Consumer Impact Recovery. The company’s collectors call consumers out of the blue and threaten them with arrest, wage garnishment, and lawsuits if they don’t pay a supposed debt. However, the debts GCI is attempting to collect either don’t exist at all or are not debts GCI can legally collect. The company’s calls to consumers can be incessant, with some receiving calls multiple times a day, leaving voicemails saying to call about an urgent legal matter. When consumers answer, they’re told that, unless they pay the bogus debts on that phone call using a credit or debit card, they’ll face legal peril.

The complaint alleges that GCI’s deceptive statements and the urgency behind them have helped convince thousands of consumers to pay at least $7.6 million in bogus debts to the company.

FinCEN recently announced that certain victims of Hurricane Milton, Hurricane Helene, Hurricane Debby, Hurricane Beryl, and Hurricane Francine will receive an additional six months to submit beneficial ownership information reports, including updates and corrections to prior reports.

FinCEN has issued the five Notices below extending the filing deadlines for reporting companies that 1) have an original reporting deadline beginning one day before the date the specified disaster began and ending 90 days after that date, and 2) are located in an area that is designated both by the Federal Emergency Management Agency as qualifying for individual or public assistance and by the Internal Revenue Service as eligible for tax filing relief.

Notice regarding—

• Hurricane Milton
• Hurricane Helene
• Hurricane Debby
• Hurricane Beryl
• Hurricane Francine

The FDIC has released a list of 51 banks examined for Community Reinvestment Act compliance whose evaluations were recently made public. Forty-seven of the banks on the list received ratings of Satisfactory. Three banks received Needs to Improve ratings.

We congratulate NorthEast Community Bank, White Plains, New York, on its receipt of a rating of Outstanding.

The Internal Revenue Service on Friday announced that the amount individuals can contribute to their 401(k) plans in 2025 has increased to $23,500, up from $23,000 for 2024. The IRS also issued technical guidance regarding all cost‑of‑living adjustments affecting dollar limitations for pension plans and other retirement-related items for tax year 2025 in Notice 2024-80.

The limit on annual contributions to an IRA remains $7,000. The IRA catch‑up contribution limit for individuals aged 50 and over was amended under the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (SECURE 2.0) to include an annual cost‑of‑living adjustment but remains $1,000 for 2025.

The NCUA has announced it issued three consent orders and one prohibition notice in October permanently prohibiting individuals from participating in the affairs of any federally insured depository institution.

Consent orders were issued to:

• Gloria J. Hall, a former employee of Prairie View Federal Credit Union, Prairie View, Texas
• Diane Stephens, a former employee of Priority First Federal Credit Union, Du Bois, Pennsylvania
• Laurie Allen, a former employee of Vibrant Credit Union, Danville, Illinois

A Notice of Prohibition was issued to Salusthian Lutamile, a former employee of IDB Global Federal Credit Union, Washington, D.C.

The CFPB has announced it has filed a Proposed final judgment and order to resolve its case against Townstone Financial for discriminatory lending practices and redlining African American neighborhoods in Chicago.

If entered by the court, the proposed order would prohibit Townstone from taking any actions that violate the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) and require the company to pay a $105,000 penalty to the CFPB’s victims relief fund. Today’s action follows lengthy contested litigation and a unanimous July 2024 decision from the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit that stated that the ECOA prohibits lenders from discouraging prospective applicants on a prohibited basis from applying for loans.

The Seventh Circuit’s decision held unanimously that “an analysis of the text of the ECOA as a whole makes clear that the text prohibits not only outright discrimination against applicants for credit, but also the discouragement of prospective applicants for credit,” which is consistent with the Bureau’s regulation (Regulation B) interpreting ECOA.

• 2020 Complaint
• 2020 Amended Complaint
• U.S. Court of Appeals Opinion
• Stipulated final judgment and order
• Stipulated dismissal - Sturner

The Securities and Exchange Commission has announced it has charged J.P. Morgan Securities LLC (JPMS) and J.P. Morgan Investment Management Inc. (JPMIM) – both affiliates of JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JP Morgan) – in five separate enforcement actions for failures including misleading disclosures to investors, breach of fiduciary duty, prohibited joint transactions and principal trades, and failures to make recommendations in the best interest of customers.

Without admitting or denying the findings in the SEC’s orders, the two affiliates agreed to pay more than $151 million in combined civil penalties and voluntary payments to investors to resolve four of the ­actions. The SEC did not impose a penalty in one of the actions, taken against JPMS, because JPMS cooperated in the investigation and undertook remedial measures.

SEC Orders:

• J.P. Morgan Securities LLC - 1
• J.P. Morgan Securities - 2
• J.P. Morgan Securities - 3
• J.P. Morgan Investment Management Inc. - 1
• J.P. Morgan Investment Management Inc. - 2

The Federal Housing Finance Agency has announced its issuance of Advisory Bulletin 2024-05, "Affordable Housing Program: Determining the Need for Affordable Housing Program Subsidy In Rental Projects," that simplifies the process for project sponsors to receive Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLBank) funds for affordable housing projects.

The Advisory Bulletin reinforces the importance of scrutinizing funding requests, using rigorous feasibility guidelines based on sound reasoning, to ensure that Affordable Housing Program (AHP) funds support the projects most in need. The bulletin provides for a streamlined compliance process and eliminates uncertainty for project sponsors about the amount of their AHP award. It also provides further clarity to the FHLBanks on determining the need for an AHP subsidy when a rental project includes capitalized reserves and supportive services.

The FBI, the Treasury Department, and the Israel National Cyber Directorate have issued a Cybersecurity Advisory (CSA) to warn network defenders of new cyber tradecraft of the Iranian cyber group Emennet Pasargad, which has been operating under the company name Aria Sepehr Ayandehsazan (ASA) and is known by the private sector terms Cotton Sandstorm, Marnanbridge, and Haywire Kitten.

The group exhibited new tradecraft in its efforts to conduct cyberenabled information operations into mid-2024 using a myriad of cover personas, including multiple cyber operations that occurred during and targeting the 2024 Summer Olympics – including the compromise of a French commercial dynamic display provider. ASA has also undertaken a project to harvest content from IP cameras and used online resources related to Artificial Intelligence. Since 2023, the group has exhibited new tradecraft including the use of fictitious hosting resellers to provision operational server infrastructure to its own actors as well as to an actor in Lebanon involved in website hosting. Recently released reporting from Microsoft indicates this group has demonstrated interest in election-related websites and media outlets, suggesting preparations for future influence operations.

The CSA provides the threat group’s tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs), including its leveraging of online resources related to Artificial Intelligence, and indicators of compromise (IOCs). The CSA also highlights similar activity from a previous FBI advisory that was published on 20 October 2022. This new advisory’s information and guidance are derived from FBI investigative activity and technical analysis of this group’s intrusion activity against U.S. and foreign organizations and engagements with numerous entities impacted by this malicious activity.

The authoring agencies recommend all organizations follow guidance provided in the Mitigations section to defend against the Iranian cyber group’s activities.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency today published [89 FR 87299] a final rule revising the National Flood Insurance Program's regulations to offer NFIP policyholders who are not required to escrow their premiums and fees for flood insurance the option of paying their annual flood insurance premium in monthly installments.

The rule will become effective December 31, 2024.

FDIC FIL-77-2024, issued yesterday, describes steps intended to provide regulatory relief to financial institutions and facilitate recovery in areas affected by the Havasupai Tribe Flooding August 22–23, 2024..

The CFPB yesterday announced it has joined with the Centers for Medicare & Medicare Services (CMS) in a joint statement to protect people with Medicare living at or below the poverty line from unlawful medical bills. These people in the Qualified Medicare Beneficiary group represent about one in eight Medicare recipients nationwide. Federal law generally prohibits healthcare providers who accept Medicare from billing these people – referred to as “QMBs” – for cost-sharing, such as co-pays or deductibles.

The agencies' joint statement emphasizes that Traditional Medicare providers and suppliers, Medicare Advantage providers and suppliers, and debt collectors can be sanctioned by CMS or be liable under federal law for improperly billing these recipients. CMS is also releasing new resources clarifying that healthcare providers must refund any improper charges, regardless of whether they received incorrect information about a recipient's QMB status from Medicare Advantage plans.

The joint statement describes the CMS guidance issued yesterday and explains how the laws that the CFPB administers and enforces apply to improper debt collection of QMBs. Specifically, the statement explains:

• Debt collectors may not collect on improper and inaccurate bills targeting Medicare beneficiaries. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act prohibits collecting bills that are not actually owed or are in the wrong amount.
• Debt collectors may not tarnish credit reports with improper and inaccurate bills. Furnishing inaccurate information may violate the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and may also demonstrate that furnishers do not verify the accuracy of information they furnish.

The Federal Reserve System has issued the third 2024 issue of Consumer Compliance Outlook. This issue includes articles on:

• Top Federal Reserve System Compliance Violations in 2023 Under the Flood Disaster Protection Act of 1973
• Top Federal Reserve System Compliance Violations in 2023 Under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act and Regulation X
• Consumer Compliance Requirements for Purchasers of Residential Mortgage Loans
• Consumer Compliance Requirements for Servicers of Purchased Mortgage Loans

Yesterday, the Treasury Department reported that OFAC had sanctioned five Mexican nationals and two Mexico-based entities linked to La Linea, a violent Mexico-based drug trafficking organization responsible for trafficking fentanyl and other deadly drugs into the United States.

See BankersOnline’s October 31, 2024, OFAC Update for the names and identifying information of the designated individuals and businesses .

The CFPB yesterday announced action against VyStar Credit Union for harming consumers through its botched rollout of a new online banking system. In May 2022, VyStar transitioned to a new, dysfunctional online banking platform that made it difficult for credit union members to perform basic banking functions for weeks, with some features unavailable for more than six months. Families incurred fees and costs as a result of these problems. The CFPB is ordering VyStar to ensure that all consumers are made whole. VyStar must also pay a $1.5 million civil penalty to the CFPB’s victims relief fund.

VyStar, formerly known as JAX Navy Federal Credit Union, is a Florida state-chartered credit union headquartered in Jacksonville with 70 branches in Florida and 10 branches in Georgia. VyStar is one of the largest credit unions in the country, with approximately $14.75 billion in total assets and over 980,000 members. In May 2022, VyStar attempted to launch a new virtual banking platform. VyStar anticipated banking services would be inaccessible for several days during the transition to the new platform, but it turned out to be much longer. The new system crashed upon launch because VyStar brought it online prematurely and failed to establish or follow critical processes to ensure its success. The platform was taken offline soon after launch. Upon bringing the system back online, the new platform lacked key banking services, some of which were not restored for months.

For further details, see “VyStar CU pays $1.5M for botched systems upgrades” in BankersOnline’s Penalties pages.

• NCUA Chairman Harper and Board Member Otsuka Statements on CFPB's VyStar Credit Union action