Archive

TRUMP STOPS NEW REGULATIONS, OR NOT

On January 20, 2017, White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus issued a memorandum (the “Priebus Memo”) to the heads of executive departments and agencies instructing them to stop the regulation issuing process for a period of time. OK. So what does the Priebus memo mean to Compliance Geeks? It is not completely clear at the moment, but time will tell. Does the Priebus Memo apply to bank regulations? The memo is directed to executive […]

WORTH WATCHING – BOA DISCRIMINATION CASE

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) recently announced it has charged Bank of America, N.A., and two of its employees with violating the Fair Housing Act by discriminating against prospective Hispanic mortgage borrowers in Charleston, South Carolina. The National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) filed a complaint with HUD claiming the bank discriminated against prospective borrowers who are Hispanic by failing to provide them with information about loan products or by offering them […]

TREASURY INDEX WEEKLY AND MONTHLY AVERAGES: WHERE DID THEY GO?

Many lenders use the Treasury Index, specifically the weekly and monthly averages, as an index for adjustable rate mortgages. The applicable index plus the internal margin set by the lender determines the interest rate that will be charged on an adjustable rate mortgage. Lenders have historically retrieved the Treasury Index weekly and monthly averages from the H.15 report (the Selected Interest Rates report published by the FRB). As of October 11, 2016, the Federal Reserve […]

ANOTHER PIECE OF THE HMDA PUZZLE RELEASED

I am an avid fan of the show Blindspot!  For those of you who are not familiar, it revolves around a mysteriously tattooed woman found in a bag in Times Square who has lost her memory and does not know her identity.  The FBI discovers that her tattoos contain clues to crimes they have to solve.  One tattoo is revealed and investigated per episode and the crime is solved in the one-hour episode.  I sometimes […]

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2016 was a busy year for compliance. It looks like 2017 is lining up to be another big year, but there no way to account for the impact of the wild card factor called President Trump. We hope that 2016 has been a good year for you and for those you love and we hope that 2017 is better in every way.