[rcooper]

Question from our recent webinar, Pandemic Relief – Managing Compliance Issues:
Can deposit fee waivers be based on individual circumstances or waived universally? Will the former method create UDAAP issues?

[rcooper]

The OCC and FDIC, through bulletins and FILs, encouraged financial institutions to work with affected customers and communities. As a result, it seems you could limit the fee waivers to affected customers. If you plan to implement procedures to verify customers have been affected by coronavirus versus those who have not may be difficult, direct correlation may be impossible in some cases, and the effort may prove too time consuming. We recommend financial institution consider COVID-19 related assistance they anticipate offering to customer and vet such assistance and programs through a specialized committee that would consider the impact to the institution and customers, as well as compliance and legal issues. Keep in mind that assistance you offer needs to be conducted with appropriate management oversight and must be consistent with safe and sound banking practices and applicable laws. If waivers are not universal, track who receives a waiver and why they received it.

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