Banking Law Prof Blog

The Fed's New HOEPA Regs Are Out for Comment

The Federal Reserve Board today announced that the long-awaited regulations Congress has pushed for to address predatory lending are out for public comment.  The proposed regulations will amend Regulation Z (Truth in Lending) for the purpose of protecting consumers from unfair or deceptive home mortgage lending and advertising practices.

I'll have more to say about this tomorrow after I've had a chance to look at the proposed regulations in  greater detail.

LInk:  http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/press/bcreg/20071218a.htm

(ag) Dec. 18, 2007, in FRB, Predatory Lending

Managing Risk

FDIC's Winter 2007 Supervisory Insights, published Monday, has good information on several current risk management issues, including:

• Liquidity Analysis
• Managing Commercial Real Estate Analysis
• Effective Suspicious Activity Reports
• HMDA Data:  Identifying & Analyzing Outliers
• Authentication in Internet Banking
• Community Bank Leverage Strategies

Link:  http://www.fdic.gov/regulations/examinations/supervisory/insights/siwin07/index.html

(ag) Dec. 18, 2007, in FDIC

The Federal Reserve Board & the Mortgage Crisis: Using All the Tools in the Box

Last week the Federal Reserve Board pulled out all the stops to address the impact of the subprime mortgage meltdown on the financial markets and the economy.  While the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) lowered the target federal funds rate only 25 basis points to 4.25% rather than the more substantial cut Wall Street wanted, the Federal Reserve also lowered the discount rate from 5% to 4.75% and, on Friday, made the announcement that today (Monday, Dec. 17, 2007) it would address liquidity problems by offering $20 billion in 28-day credit through its Term Auction Facility.  This mechanism is not well known, nor is it frequently employed.  Check out the Federal Reserve Board's explanation of how financial institutions can bid for Federal Reserve advances.

Link to Dec. 11, 2007, announcement of FOMC interest rate cut:  http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/press/monetary/20071211a.htm 

Links to announcements of discount rate reductions:  http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/press/monetary/20071211a.htm

http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/press/monetary/20071212b.htm

http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/press/monetary/20071213a.htm

Link to announcement of new liquidity provision: http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/press/monetary/20071214a.htm

(ag) Dec. 17, 2007, in FRB/Economy/Interest Rates

Get Ready: New FACTA Facts

Help your financial institution clients get ready for two new final FACTA regulations that are effective January 1, 2008.  The federal financial institution regulatory agencies jointly issued final regulations pursuant to the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) as amended by the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA) that relate to Affiliate Marketing (mandatory compliance by Oct. 1, 2008) and to Identity Theft Red Flags (mandatory compliance by Nov. 1, 2008).

Link to Final Affiliate Marketing Regulation:  http://www.fdic.gov/news/news/financial/2007/fil07098.html

Link to Final Identity Theft Red Flags Regulation and Guidelines:  http://www.fdic.gov/news/news/financial/2007/fil07100.html

(ag) Dec. 17, 2007, in FACTA

New Agreement to Assist Subprime Borrowers

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and other financial institution regulators yesterday announced the new plan for assistance to subprime borrowers.   More commentary to follow . . .

Here's a link to the White House Fact Sheet:  http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/12/20071206-7.html

(ag) Dec. 7, 2007, in Subprime Lending