SDBA eNews

March 29, 2018

Early Deadline Nearing to Sponsor at 2018 Annual Convention

Banking business partners' knowledge, ideas and involvement help create a learning environment focused on the future of banking. The SDBA and NDBA's banking business partners are invited to join Dakota bankers June 10-12 at the Delta by Marriott in Fargo, N.D., to Innovate. Inspire. Ignite.

Information is available on sponsoring and exhibiting at this year's convention. 

Follow the fun at ndbaconvention.com. Questions, contact the North Dakota Bankers Association at 701.223.5303.


Wells Fargo Moving 100 Aberdeen Jobs to Other States

Wells Fargo is moving 100 jobs from Aberdeen to cities in other states, including Minneapolis, according to The Associated Press. The decision affects auto finance workers and those in student loan collections.

Company spokeswoman Staci Schiller says the move over the coming months is designed "to meet the needs of customers and the marketplace." She says workers in Aberdeen who want to move with their jobs will be offered relocation assistance. Those who don't want to move will be given severance packages.

Other cities where jobs are being moved are in Arizona, Texas, North Carolina and Utah. The Aberdeen location is expected to close by the end of the year.


Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Announce 2019 Date for New Single Security

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac yesterday announced that the new common security they have been developing--the uniform mortgage-backed security, or UMBS--will be implemented on June 3, 2019. The UMBS will replace the current TBA-eligible MBS issued by the two GSEs. The UMBS will be issued by Common Securitization Solutions, Fannie and Freddie’s joint venture. With yesterday’s announcement, the GSEs and CSS have hit several key development and testing milestones.

The GSEs, along with the Federal Housing Finance Agency, have for years been working on the project of issuing a common security. Freddie Mac began using CSS in 2016 for data acceptance, issuance support and bond administration on its current securities, processing about 1,000 securities each month using the Common Securitization Platform and performing bond administration functions for 260,000 single class securities backed by about 9.8 million loans.

A recent ABA Banking Journal article included information for bankers as both seller/servicers and asset purchasers about preparing for the UMBS. Read more. Read the article


ABA Issues Staff Analysis of Court's Ruling on TCPA

With a federal appellate court recently striking down some of the Federal Communications Commission’s constraints on when and how businesses can contact customers by the phone, ABA last Friday issued a staff analysis summarizing what the decision means for banks.

A three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals earlier this month overturned two significant aspects of the FCC’s 2015 interpretive order on TCPA that have created compliance challenges for banks: the FCC’s definition of an autodialer (which the court noted was “unreasonably expansive”), and the FCC’s assignment of liability for calling a reassigned number. The court upheld the FCC’s approach to how call recipients can revoke previously granted consent to calls, but concluded that a caller and call recipient may contractually agree to specific revocation mechanisms. ABA had applauded the court’s decision as “an important step toward allowing customers to receive information they need and want, in the way they want to receive it.”

ABA noted in the analysis that the court overturned but did not replace the FCC’s interpretations of the definition of “autodialer” or the treatment of reassigned numbers, and that the “ruling provides the FCC with ample room to create new interpretations of the TCPA.” The association also pointed out that, in the immediate term, “the court’s decision will further the lack of clarity over which dialing equipment constitutes an ‘autodialer.’” In addition, by invalidating the one-call safe harbor for calling a reassigned number “the court removed the limited protection from liability for calling a reassigned number that had been afforded by this safe harbor," ABA said. Read the staff analysis


FCC Formally Proposes Reassigned Numbers Database

In related news, the FCC last Thursday officially voted to propose--and last Friday released draft text of the proposal--establishing a database of phone numbers that have been relinquished by one individual and reassigned to another individual. Under existing case law and the FCC’s TCPA regulations--prior to being struck down by last week's appellate court ruling--a bank or other company is liable for a call made in good faith to a party who has consented to receive the call but whose telephone number has been reassigned to another consumer--unbeknownst to the caller.

As reported in ABA Daily Newsbytes earlier this month, the FCC’s proposal seeks comment on how such a database should be constructed, used and funded. In its proposal, the FCC expresses tentative support for the establishment of a single database of reassigned numbers, noting that a single database would be “more efficient and cost-effective” than an approach that reports reassigned number information to multiple commercial data aggregators.

ABA has urged the FCC to create a centrally administered database of reassigned numbers and to provide a safe harbor for callers that use the database but nonetheless call a reassigned number inadvertently. Read the proposalFor more information, contact ABA's Jonathan Thessin


Agencies Issue Update on Exam Modernization Effort

As part of an ongoing review of the safety and soundness exam process, the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council last week issued an update on its progress thus far. After surveying current processes and seeking feedback from several supervised institutions and examiners, FFIEC members said they will initially focus their efforts on four specific areas that they found to have a high potential for meaningfully reducing regulatory burden.

These focus areas include highlighting and reinforcing regulator communication objectives at all stages of the exam process; better employing technology to shift exam work from onsite to offsite; tailoring examinations based on the risk profile of an institution; and improving electronic file transfer systems to facilitate the exchange of information between examiners and supervised institutions. The agencies noted that other focus areas may emerge as the modernization process moves forward.

ABA has been engaged throughout the exam modernization effort, facilitating calls between community bankers and the FFIEC regulatory staff to discuss ways to improve the exam process, streamline exam reports and make the Uniform Bank Performance Report more accessible and informative. The association will continue to engage with regulators and provide feedback on how to reduce the exam burden for banks. Read more. For more information, contact ABA’s Barry Mills, Rick Freer or Shaun Kern


ABA FS-ISAC to Launch Free CEO Webinar Series on Cyber Threats

In response to member feedback, ABA has created a new quarterly series of free webinars--each centering on a top-level update from the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center--to help bank CEOs keep pace with cyber threats targeting the banking industry.

ABA President and CEO Rob Nichols sent an invitation yesterday to member CEOs to participate in the first briefing, which will be held Tuesday, April 10, at 1 p.m. CDT, and will focus on cyber threats to internal payments systems. FS-ISAC CEO Bill Nelson will provide a high-level overview of the threats, their potential effects on banks and resources available to mitigate the threats. Bank CEOs who did not receive the email but would like to participate should contact ABA’s June Fredericks


ABA Offers Free Compliance Resources on FinCEN Beneficial Ownership Rule

ABA has consolidated and added to its resources aimed at helping banks comply with FinCEN’s customer due diligence rule, which takes effect May 11. The resources include a sample letter to business customers, sample desk notice and talking points, as well as a staff analysis of the rule, a model certification form and an online compliance training course, which is free to members as part of ABA’s Frontline Compliance training program. View the resources.


Compliance AllianceQuestion of the Week

Question: How does UDAAP relate to other laws?

Answer: An unfair, deceptive, or abusive act or practice may also violate other federal or state laws. For example, under TILA, you must “clearly and conspicuously” disclose the costs and terms of credit. An act or practice that does not comply with these requirements of TILA may also be unfair, deceptive or abusive. On the other hand, a transaction that is technically in compliance with other federal or state laws may nevertheless be in violation of UDAAP. For example, an advertisement may comply with TILA, but contain additional statements that are untrue or misleading. So just complying with TILA’s disclosure requirements does not insulate the rest of the advertisement from the possibility of being deceptive under UDAAP.

Compliance rules and regulations change quickly. For timely compliance updates, subscribe to Compliance Alliance’s email newsletters.

Compliance Alliance offers a comprehensive suite of compliance management solutions. To learn how to put them to work for your bank, call 888.353.3933 or email.


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