A Little of This, A Little of That

Posted by Anthony Demangone

There's just a ton of stuff to talk about.  Tons.

RESPA.  Despite push back from virtually every possible direction, HUD promises to move forward with RESPA reform.  Note that HUD is withdrawing its "Required Use" provision.  They indicate that they'll replace it with something else.  Also remember that there is some Congressional movement toward forcing HUD's hand on this issue (withdrawing its current reform efforts), but whether that succeeds remains to be seen.

MSBs.  FinCEN announces that they've issued a proposed change to the definition of a money services business.

Currently, to meet one definitional threshold of an MSB a person must conduct $1,000 of transactions per person per day. This applies to all categories of MSBs except for "money transmission." This NPRM solicits comment on either raising or lowering the definitional threshold. If a person meets the definition for an MSB, they are subject to the applicable recordkeeping and reporting requirements of the BSA rules. An entity that engages in money transmission in any amount is subject to the BSA rules and the solicitation for comment on revising the threshold is directed to the other categories of MSB. FinCEN will address regulation changes concerning stored value providers in a future rulemaking. In this rulemaking, however, FinCEN solicits comments on stored value issues in an effort to have a better-informed subsequent rulemaking confined to providers of stored value.

Discrimination.  The FTC has issued a complaint against a lender claiming discrimination against Hispanic borrowers.

The complaint alleged that the company’s policy and practice of allowing loan officers to charge discretionary overages resulted in Hispanics being charged higher prices because of their national origin – price disparities that are “substantial, statistically significant, and cannot be explained by factors related to underwriting risk or credit characteristics of the applicants.”

BSA Blast.  Hey NAFCU members: The May 2009 BSA Blast is available.