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Too-Big-To-Fail
Fine: Too-Big-To-Fail No Laughing Matter
Executives of systemically risky financial institutions should back up their talk about the too-big-to-fail problem with action, ICBA President and CEO Cam Fine wrote in his latest blog post. Fine wrote that recent comments by JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon calling for “Old Testament justice” on the “big dumb banks” that fueled the financial crisis appears to be empty talk.
“It’s
easy to get up on a stage and talk about fairness and accountability in financial regulation,” Fine wrote in Finer Points. “But if you are one of the beneficiaries of favorable treatment, actions speak louder than words.” Read the Blog Post.
Too-Big-To-Fail
George Will: Break Up the Biggest Banks
Washington Post
columnist George F. Will wrote that policymakers should break up too-big-to-fail banks because of their unfair competitive advantage over community banks. This “silent subsidy” distorts the market by socializing losses while keeping profits private and has expanded beyond the financial sector in recent years, Will wrote.
“By breaking up the biggest banks, conservatives will not be putting asunder what the free market has joined together,” Will wrote. “Government nurtured these behemoths by weaving an improvident safety net and by practicing crony capitalism. Dismantling them would be a blow against government that has become too big not to fail.” Read the Column.
Regulation
CFPB Warns Mortgage Servicers about Loan-Transfer Protections
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a bulletin advising mortgage companies about their legal obligations that protect consumers during loan transfers between mortgage servicers. When handing over the processing of loans, mortgage servicers should not lose paperwork, lose track of homeowner loss-mitigation plans, or hinder consumers’ chances of saving their home from unnecessary foreclosure, the CFPB said.
The
CFPB said it has noticed a significant number of servicing complications related to the large amount of servicing transfers over the past year. In many cases, banks have transferred the servicing of troubled loans to more specialized nonbank servicers, the bureau said. The CFPB said that because of its supervisory authority over banks and nonbanks, it is reminding everyone in the mortgage-servicing industry to minimize the risks that these servicing transfers can present to consumers.
The CFPB said it is examining how servicers have prepared for the transfer of servicing rights or responsibilities, how new servicers handle the files they receive and what policies servicers have to prevent borrower harm for loans with loss mitigations in process.
ICBA
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Regulation
HUD Issues Final Rule on Fair Housing
The Department of Housing and Urban Development issued a final rule to formalize the national standard for determining whether a housing practice violates the Fair Housing Act as the result of discriminatory effect. HUD said it has long interpreted the act to prohibit housing practices with an unjustified discriminatory effect if those acts actually or predictably result in a disparate impact on a group of persons or in segregated housing patterns. HUD said the rule provides clarity and consistency for individuals and organizations covered by the law.
ICBA and a coalition of other financial services groups last year told HUD
that the Fair Housing Act does not support the disparate-impact approach. The associations wrote that the proposal may encourage quotas and exceeds the department’s authority and that HUD should exempt compliance with government and government-sponsored programs or policies.
Congress
Senate Banking Panel Announces Subcommittee Assignments
The Senate Banking Committee
announced its subcommittee assignments for the 113th Congress. The subcommittees include panels on Economic Policy; Financial Institutions and Consumer Protection; Housing, Transportation and Community Development; National Security and International Trade and Finance; and Securities, Insurance and Investment.
Economy
Fed’s Yellen: Fiscal Policy an Economic Headwind
Government spending has been a headwind against the economic recovery instead of a tailwind as in the past, Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Janet
Yellen said. Speaking to the AFL-CIO, Yellen said that discretionary fiscal policy after the first year following the end of the recession has restrained the recovery. “Negotiations continue over the extent of spending cuts now due to take effect beginning in March, and I expect that discretionary fiscal policy will continue to be a headwind for the recovery for some time,” she said.
Consumers
Obama Administration Launches Smart Disclosure Site
The Obama administration launched the Smart Disclosure Data Community
to help Americans make more informed choices in the marketplace. The site is designed to make potentially useful data more readily available to consumers and to innovators who can use it to build tools that help consumers make smart decisions. The community is a centralized platform containing more than 400 smart-disclosure data sets and resources from dozens of agencies across government.
Agriculture
USDA Issues 10-Year Ag Projections
The USDA released
its agricultural projections through 2022. The 10-year projections for the food and agriculture sector cover major agricultural commodities, agricultural trade and aggregate indicators of the U.S. farm sector, such as farm income and food prices.
Poll
This Week’s Quick Poll
Take this week’s Quick Poll on the impact of new Federal Housing Administration rules on private mortgage insurance, and view results from the previous poll
on the new FHA rules. View the Archive.
Education
ICBA Compliance Institute On Tap
ICBA
is hosting its Compliance Institute June 2-7 in Kansas City, Mo., to meet the needs of both seasoned professionals and new compliance officers. For 2013, the program has been revised to incorporate the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s comprehensive compliance reforms in areas such as Regulations Z, X, B and E. The latest guidance on integrated mortgage disclosures, high-cost mortgages, loan servicing and lender compensation will be covered in detail in the lending units. New foreign remittance transfer rules will be clarified in the deposit compliance unit. Register Online.
Products and Services
ICBA's $2.45B Loan and Lease Volume up 7%—Are You Getting Your Market Share?
OneWorld Business Finance, an ICBA Preferred Service Provider, is hosting a webinar illustrating how equipment leasing services can protect, insulate and help community banks grow. By leveraging commercial and industrial customers, community banks can expand with high-quality equipment financing and leasing programs. The annual amount of equipment financing and leasing may equal approximately 10 percent-15 percent of the bank’s total assets. The webinars will be held at noon (Eastern time) Thursday, Feb. 14,
and again at 4 p.m. (Eastern time) Tuesday, March 5.
Products and Services
Read the February Issue of BankInsurance.com News
The February issue of BankInsurance.com News
from Michael White Associates spotlights a boon for community banks: investment program earnings boasting double-digit growth. Find out what types of fee income comprise these investment program earnings and who is benefitting most. Also dominating the news in this issue: acquisitions, divestitures and joint ventures—BankInsurance.com reveals who is buying, selling and partnering, and with whom. Read the February Issue.
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