As part of its review of the Economic Growth and Regulatory Paperwork Reduction Act of 1996, the OCC issued a final rule complementing other actions already taken and integrating comments received as part of its review. Highlights of the changes include clarifying national bank director oath requirements, removed unnecessary requirements with respect to fidelity bond activities, revised certain recordkeeping requirements, updated rules relating to insider and affiliate transactions, and removed certain disclosure and regulatory reporting, auditing and accounting requirements.

https://www.occ.gov/news-issuances/bulletins/2017/bulletin-2017-10.html

Low-income federally insured credit unions can now apply for certification as a CDFI through the streamlined application process. This is the first of three streamlined certification application rounds in 2017. The other two will begin on May 1 and August 7.

https://www.ncua.gov/newsroom/Pages/news-2017-feb-first-cdfi-certification-round-open.aspx

A blog post on buying your first home. It includes tips shopping for a mortgage and what happens when you buy a home with someone else.

https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/blog/making-move-homeownership-your-own-or-someone-else/

The FATF will begin 7 days of meetings in Paris to discuss counter terrorist financing, transparency and beneficial ownership, Sweden and progress of countries with outstanding deficiencies from the last round of evaluations. The conference will include up to 800 delegates from the 198 jurisdictions of the FATF Global Network as well as the UN, IMF, and World Bank.

https://www.fatf-gafi.org/publications/fatfgeneral/documents/plenary-february-2017.html

The SDN List has been updated with a number of individuals, entities and an aircraft.

https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/OFAC-Enforcement/Pages/20170213.aspx

The OCC released revised economic scenarios for use by financial institutions with total consolidated assets of more than $10 billion for the 2017 stress tests. The previously released scenarios contained incorrect historical values for the BBB corporate yield in 2016. The FRB and the FDIC have also issued corrected data.

https://www.occ.gov/news-issuances/news-releases/2017/nr-occ-2017-19.html

The OCC will host the Building Blocks for Directors workshop in Tulsa, OK for directors of national community banks and federal savings associations supervised by the OCC. The workshop will discuss the roles and responsibilities of board participation for both new and experienced directors. The workshop will also discuss major laws and regulations, and exam processes. The cost is $99 and limited to the first 35 registrants. Registration is available online or by calling 240.485.1700.

https://www.occ.gov/news-issuances/news-releases/2017/nr-occ-2017-17.html

The OCC announced that national savings banks and federal savings associations directly affected by severe winter weather in the northeastern US are allowed to close. Banks should make every effort to reopen as quickly as possible to ensure the needs of their customers are met.

https://www.occ.gov/news-issuances/news-releases/2017/nr-occ-2017-18.html

The FTC released its annual summary of activities enforcing the ECOA for the CFPB. The summary describes policy issues, big data use, a report on fraud in African American and Latino communities, and FTC workshops.

https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2017/02/ftc-staff-provides-annual-letter-cfpb-equal-credit-opportunity

OFAC issued regulations adjusting for inflation the maximum amount of CMPs that may be assessed.

https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/OFAC-Enforcement/Pages/20170209.aspx