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On February 10, 2022, in a most unusual case, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) issued a Consent Order for the payment of a $3,000 civil money penalty to Craig Meader, the president and a board member of First National Bank of Kansas, Burlington, Kansas. The OCC found, and Meader neither admits nor denies, that, during the period from August to September 2020, Meader directed employees to implement extended holds on ACH deposits

On March 16, 2022, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that is using Unfair, Deceptive and Abusive Acts and Practices (UDAAP) rules to prevent discrimination in all consumer finance markets including credit, servicing, collections, consumer reporting, payments, remittances, and deposits. Examiners will require supervised companies to show their processes for assessing risks and discriminatory outcomes, including documentation of customer demographics and the impact of products and fees on different demographic groups. The CFPB will

On March 10, 2022, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) reported a new initiative to focus on financial issues facing rural America. That effort will initially focus on rural banking deserts, discriminatory and predatory agricultural credit, and manufactured housing. Last month, Director Chopra invited over 50 people from organizations representing rural people across the country to tell their stories and share their concerns. Following are their stories. Rural Banking Deserts: Stakeholders described how stark declines in

On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, declared COVID-19 a global Pandemic. It is chilling to re-read his comments now and to consider our failures to take simple actions that could have lessened the severity of the crisis. The Director-General’s full comments are reproduced below.   Good afternoon. In the past two weeks, the number of cases of COVID-19 outside China has increased 13-fold, and the number of

After a series of short-term continuing resolutions, on March 10, 2022, Congress passed a federal spending bill that provides funding for the National Flood Insurance Program until September 30, 2022, which is the end of the 2022 fiscal year. The measure has been sent to President Biden for his signature.