REGular Blog: Weekly Roundup: April 18th

Happy Thursday everyone - today is NCUA Board Meeting Thursday, after an unexpected month off in March. They are back with a proposed rulemaking. Let's take a look at that and some of the other top stories of the week in regulatory compliance.

NCUA to issue ANPR on Record Preservation

The League will be on-site at the NCUA tomorrow as the Board meets to propose rulemaking related to records preservation. The rulemaking will be published tomorrow as the meeting commences. We wrote a preview of the rulemaking here on the REGular blog earlier this week, and we'll release an analysis of the rulemaking after it is released tomorrow.

FinCEN Comment Period Ends - Now We Wait

The public comment period on FinCEN's estimates of the time burden for both SARs and CTRs has ended. The League submitted comments on both CTRs and SARs, highlighting the overall scope of the regulatory burden, the lack of information credit unions get back from law enforcement about these reports, and advocated for solutions to ease these burdens, including the raising of mandatory filing thresholds, modernization of the SAR form, and the creation of a simplified SAR to be used for structuring. Other trade groups, BSA officers, and other stakeholders submitted comments as well. The ball is now in FinCEN's court to read and evaluate comments, and we will see if any substantive changes come out of this process. 

CFPB Under Fire in House Subcommittee

During a hearing of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Monetary Policy on Tuesday, Chairman Andy Barr (R-Ky.) delivered strong remarks against the CFPB, accusing Director Rohit Chopra of running an out-of-control agency.

“The CFPB is increasingly out of control and lacks transparency because there are virtually no checks on the agency’s power," said Barr in his opening statement. “A rogue CFPB under Director Chopra is no help to consumers, even if advocates of the CFPB tout the amount of fines and damages awards the CFPB claims to have generated. The sanctions generated have costs and they also come at the social cost of Director Chopra’s blanket indictments of hard-working and honest workers throughout the financial system."

He discussed the record of Court's striking down the Bureau's actions, Congress' lack of ability to rein in their overreach, and how the agency's activities will increase the costs of financial services to consumers and reduce the availability of services.

The CFPB was invited to testify during yesterday's hearing but declined to participate. Several members of the subcommittee pushed back on Barr's comments, with Rep. Bill Foster (D-Ill.) noting that the CFPB is popular in public polling, and ranking member Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Ca.) characterizing Republicans' attack of the CFPB as a crusade. 

The full House Financial Services Committee met on Wednesday for a markup on a number of bills and resolutions, including a resolution providing congressional disapproval of the CFPB's recent rule on credit card late fees. Reps. Barr and Waters had a spirited back and forth about the CFPB and the possible impacts of the rule on other types of fees or charges, with other members of the Committee weighing in as well. Ultimately, a recorded vote on the resolution was requested. You can watch the debate here with the debate on the resolution starting at the timestamp of 3:34:00 remaining in the video.

Credit Union-Bank Transactions: New York Regulators Asked to Weigh In

There has been a lot of press coverage this year so far about proposed bank asset acquisition by credit unions. One such proposed acquisition is in New York, where Hudson Valley Credit Union would acquire the assets of Catskill Hudson Bank. Under the proposal, the bank's branches would become credit union branches and the bank's customers would become credit union members. Last week, the New York Bankers Association and the Independent Bankers Association of New York State wrote a letter to the NY State Department of Financial Services (DFS), the state's banking regulator. They urged the DFS to "pause this merger and fully analyze the potential unintended consequences of a credit union acquiring a bank for the first time in New York State."

While a handful of announcements of proposed credit union-bank asset acquisitions have been announced in states around the country this year, this issue has not come up in Virginia as of yet. In many states, the banking regulator is the one making the decision, as only a few states have enacted legislation either permitting or prohibiting these types of transactions. 

That's all for now - we'll be back in the next few days with a breakdown of the NCUA's proposed rule on records preservation. Until then, feel free to reach out if there's a topic you'd like to see us cover - my email is jblau@vacul.org.