Archive

Volcker Rule Reprieve

On May 30 the Federal Reserve Board approved provisions to simplify the Volcker Rule. The revisions keep the core of the Volcker Rule intact and continue to prevent banks from trading with depositors’ money. The rule, which was enacted as part of the 2010 Dodd-Frank law, took five regulatory agencies more than three years to write. After five years of experience the agencies have proposed a three-tiered approach that places the heaviest burden on those […]

UPDATED RESPA AND TILA EXAMINATION PROCEDURES

On April 19, 2018 the Federal Reserve Board published a Consumer Affairs Letter (CA 18-3) regarding Revised Interagency Examination Procedures for Regulation X and Regulation Z. The Task Force on Consumer Compliance of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council recently developed the interagency examination procedures for the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) and the Truth in Lending Act (TILA). The revised examination procedures supersede the examination procedures transmitted with CA Letter 15-6. The procedures […]

APPRAISAL REVISIONS TAKE EFFECT

On April 9, 2018 the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC); Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board); and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) published a final rule to amend the agencies’ regulations requiring appraisals of real estate for certain transactions. The final rule increases the threshold level at or below which appraisals are not required for commercial real estate transactions from $250,000 to $500,000 and makes other changes. The final […]

MORE TALK OF CRA REVISIONS

On April 3, 2018 the U.S. Department of the Treasury released recommendations to modernize the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). The recommendations were issued to the primary CRA regulators, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Reserve Board, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.  Treasury’s objective in developing these recommendations is to better align CRA activity with the needs of the communities that banks serve, while being conducted in a manner consistent with […]

CHANGE IN APPRAISAL THRESHOLD

On March 20, 2018 the FDIC board of directors approved a final rule to raise the appraisal thresholds for commercial real estate transactions from $250,000 to $500,000. The threshold for loans secured by one-to-four family residential properties will remain at $250,000. The final rule increases the commercial real estate appraisal threshold with three modifications from the proposal. First, the agencies have increased the commercial real estate appraisal threshold to $500,000 rather than $400,000 as proposed. […]