The Federal Housing Finance Agency is seeking input on proposed modifications to the Underserved Markets Plans for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The “duty to serve” plans require the enterprises to serve three specified underserved markets—manufactured housing, affordable housing preservation, and rural housing.
The American Bankers Association (ABA) announced the winners of the third annual ABA Bank Marketing Video Awards this week during the Bank Marketing Conference in Baltimore. The Bank of Elk River was one of four banks honored at the conference and took home the “Best in Show” award for its video spotlighting how a local family collaborated with The Bank of Elk River to build their dream home. The video was also the winner in the category for banks with less than $500 million in assets.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac revised eligibility requirements for private mortgage insurers, the Federal Housing Finance Agency announced. The updates include changes to: risk-based asset requirements, the treatment of approved risk-transfer transactions, and risk-transfer credit arising from counterparty risk associated with reinsurance transactions. The standards establish minimum financial and operational requirements for doing business with the enterprises.
Federal Reserve Bank of Boston researchers encouraged stakeholders to continue collaborating on the development of payment tokenization. Noting that tokenization mitigates risk by eliminating the need to store and transmit a customer’s primary account number, a new paper says that collaboration will help expand its use in e-commerce, evaluate third-party token service providers, educate consumers, and anticipate future innovations.
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network said financial institutions affected by Hurricane Florence should contact FinCEN and their functional regulator as soon as practicable to discuss any delays in their ability to file Bank Secrecy Act reports. FinCEN can be reached at [email protected].
Federal regulators exempted loans for property and casualty insurance policies from Customer Identification Program rules. Banks engaging in insurance premium finance lending must continue to comply with all other regulatory requirements implementing the Bank Secrecy Act, including the requirement to file suspicious activity reports.
The House passed legislation to permanently extend the lower individual tax rates included in the tax reform law signed late last year. Known as “Tax Reform 2.0,” the package of bills would lock in lower rates set to expire at the end of 2025, though it is not expected to be taken up by the Senate. In addition to cutting the top C-corp rate, the ICBA-supported Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 reduced the individual rates affecting Subchapter S banks.
The Justice Department told members of Congress that it is evaluating whether to issue guidance on web accessibility standards under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Responding to a bipartisan letter from 103 members of Congress requesting clarity, the DOJ stood by its interpretation that the law applies to websites, but left room for a flexible approach.
The time has come for community bank card issuers to begin ramping up their contactless payments strategy. More than half of the top 100 U.S. merchants are already contactless enabled and smaller merchants are also speeding to adopt contactless point-of-sale technology in a bid to improve the cusotmer experience.
Chelsea Groton Bank has been awarded a 2018 Top Workplaces honor by The Hartford Courant, for the third year in a row. The Top Workplaces lists are based on the results of an employee feedback survey administered by Energage, formerly WorkplaceDynamics, a leading research firm that specializes in organizational health and workplace improvement. Several aspects of workplace culture were measured, including alignment, execution, and connection.
The Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection said it will relocate its southeast regional office from Washington, D.C., to Atlanta, Ga., in late 2019. The bureau already has regional offices in New York, Chicago and San Francisco that host supervision staff, enforcement attorneys and other personnel. The southeast regional team has been temporarily based out of the bureau’s D.C. headquarters since its inception.
A provision of S. 2155 requiring credit reporting agencies to freeze consumer credit reports at no charge took effect Friday. These security or credit freezes restrict access to credit files to reduce identity theft.
ICBA and other banking groups called on the IRS to reconsider its approach to implementing the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act’s 20 percent tax deduction for pass-through businesses. In a joint comment letter, ICBA said the agency should allow all permissible banking activities to be eligible for the deduction.
ICBA Bancard’s Senior Vice President of Card and Payment Products, Julie Hanson, says that many times when she is discussing debit and credit card portfolio strategies with community bankers, they are unaware of the many core benefits that are baked into their Visa and Mastercard programs.
In order to assist individuals and families in switching to a better banking experience, Chelsea Groton Bank is pleased to introduce a new Switch Hotline, which will provide prospective customers the convenience of switching to Chelsea Groton Bank over the phone, during and after hours, by calling 860-448-4195 (Monday – Friday: 8am – 7pm, Saturday: 9am – 1pm).
Roselle Bank, which has served central and northern New Jersey for nearly 130 years, has begun renovating its operations center, located at 108 West Third Avenue, Roselle, NJ across from the bank’s main branch. The facelift is part of Roselle Bank’s comprehensive initiative to enhance customer convenience and overall banking experiences.
