All in Regulatory Update

On October 15, 2024, the CFPB and the DOJ took action against Fairway Independent Mortgage Corporation for illegal mortgage lending discrimination against majority-Black neighborhoods in the greater Birmingham, Alabama area. According to the CFPB and DOJ, Fairway illegally redlined Black neighborhoods, including through its marketing and sales actions, by discouraging people from applying for mortgage loans in the Birmingham metropolitan area’s Black neighborhoods.

On October 10, 2024, the OCC announced a cease and desist order and a $450 million civil money penalty against TD Bank, N.A. and TD Bank USA, N.A., for deficiencies in the bank’s BSA and AML compliance program. The OCC determined that the bank failed to develop and maintain a BSA/AML program reasonably designed to assure and monitor compliance with the BSA and its implementing regulations.

On October 7, 2024, the CFPB published a new edition of Supervisory Highlights describing the agency’s supervisory findings related to illegal practices in auto finance, including lenders repossessing consumers’ cars after the borrower made timely payments or received loan extensions. The report also highlights significant problems with add-on products that are packaged at the front-end of the auto loan, increasing the loan costs, and then not properly refunded at the back end upon early loan termination, when the consumer can no longer use the products.

On October 1, 2024, the OCC released its bank supervision operating plan for fiscal year 2025, which begins on October 1, 2024, and ends on September 30, 2025. The plan provides the foundation for policy initiatives and for supervisory strategies as applied to individual national banks, federal savings associations, federal branches, federal agencies, and technology service providers. The OCC staff will use this plan to guide their supervisory priorities, planning, and resource allocations.