What's New? Reg. CC

On June 24, 2019, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (the Bureau) and the Federal Reserve Board (the Board) jointly announced a final rule amending Regulation CC. The final rule includes the COLA changes required by the Dodd-Frank Act as well as certain amendments made by the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act (EGRRCPA).

The COLA changes are effective July 1, 2020 and may be found in The Gold Book.

What's New? 401(k) Hardship Distributions

New hardship rules became effective for calendar year plans beginning January 1, 2019.  Most of these rules are welcome changes which should make more funds available to plan participants who are experiencing financial hardship.  

The final regulations eliminate the requirements that plan participants take loans from the plan to the extent they are available before they are permitted to take a hardship distribution from the plan and that participants may not make new contributions to the plan within six months of the hardship distribution. They also change the casualty loss hardship distribution rules for disaster relief and the rules for determining the amount of plan funds available for distribution, while clarifying the requirement that funds not be available from other sources. 

Read more in The Gold Book.

What's New? NJ Family Leave Act Updated

New Jersey recently added dramatic expansions to the New Jersey Family Leave Act and New Jersey Family Leave insurance. Click here to read about the New Jersey Family Leave Act in the Human Resources chapter of The Gold Book.

What's New? New Appraisal Thresholds

The FDIC, the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency  have amended the Appraisal Rule and created a new definition of, and a separate category for, residential real estate transactions and raises the threshold for requiring an appraisal for such transactions from $250,000 to $400,000. Read more here in The Gold Book. 

What's New? HMDA Relief

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a final rule providing relief for smaller institutions from the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data collection and reporting requirements by extending until Jan. 1, 2022, the current temporary coverage threshold of 500 for open-end lines of credit. The Bureau said it would address permanent relief in a future rulemaking. To read the final rule click here. Read more about HMDA Rules in The Gold Book.

What's New? Private Flood Insurance

A final rule under the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012 permits regulated lending institutions to accept flood insurance provided by private insurers that does not meet the statutory definition of “private flood insurance,” subject to certain conditions. The final rule takes effect on July 1, 2019.

Further information may be found in The Gold Book.

What's new? NYS Wage Exemptions

Under the New York Exempt Income Protection Act wage exemption, a financial institution must make a certain amount available to the depositor based on the amount of the federal or New York State minimum wage (whichever is higher). Read more about the increased wage exemption amounts in The Gold Book. 

Debt Collections Proposed Rule

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to implement the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. The proposal would provide consumers with clear protections against harassment by debt collectors and straightforward options to address or dispute debts. It would also set clear, bright-line limits on the number of calls debt collectors may place to reach consumers on a weekly basis; clarify how collectors may communicate lawfully using newer technologies, such as voicemails, emails and text messages, that have developed since the FDCPA’s passage in 1977; and require collectors to provide additional information to consumers to help them identify debts and respond to collection attempts.

Read more about the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act in The Gold Book.

The proposed rule may be found here:

https://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/documents/cfpb_debt-collection-NPRM.pdf

What's New? Prepaid Accounts Rule

Revised interagency examination procedures for Regulation E, Regulation Z and Regulation X were released. These procedures relate to the creation of comprehensive consumer protections for prepaid accounts. 

A prepaid account, (also called a prepaid card or a stored-value card) is a payment card with a monetary value stored on the card itself, not in an external account maintained by a financial institution. This means no network access is required by the payment collection terminals as funds can be withdrawn and deposited straight from the card.

See The Gold Book for more information. 

2019 Standard Mileage Rates

The Internal Revenue Service has issued the 2019 optional standard mileage rates used to calculate the deductible costs of operating an automobile for business, charitable, medical or moving purposes.

Beginning on Jan. 1, 2019, the standard mileage rates for the use of a car (also vans, pickups or panel trucks) will be:

• 58 cents for every mile of business travel driven, up 1 cent from the rate for 2017.
• 20 cents per mile driven for medical or moving purposes, up 1 cent from the rate for 2017.
• 14 cents per mile driven in service of charitable organizations.

More information may be found in Notice 2019-02, posted on IRS.gov. 

What's New? Annual CRA Asset-Size Threshold Adjustments

The federal bank regulatory agencies announced the annual adjustment to the asset-size thresholds used to define small bank, small savings association, intermediate small bank, and intermediate small savings association under the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) regulations.

The annual adjustments are required by the CRA rules.  Financial institutions are evaluated under different CRA examination procedures based upon their asset-size classification.  Those meeting the small and intermediate small institution asset-size thresholds are not subject to the reporting requirements applicable to large banks and savings associations unless they choose to be evaluated as a large institution.

Annual adjustments to these asset-size thresholds are based on the change in the average of the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W).

Read more on Bank Size Criteria in The Gold Book.

What's New? Cost of Living Adjustments

The Internal Revenue Service announcd cost of living adjustments affecting dollar limitations for pension plans and other retirement-related items for tax year 2019. For details see:

Cost of Living Adjustments for Pension Plans

Traditional IRA Deductions

Roth IRA Contribution Limitations

Proposed Funds Availability Amendments

The Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection and the Federal Reserve Board jointly proposed amendments to Regulation CC that would implement a statutory requirement to adjust for inflation the amount of funds depository institutions must make available to their customers.

The amendments would apply in circumstances ranging from next business day withdrawal of certain check deposits to setting the threshold amount for determining whether an account has been repeatedly withdrawn.

The first set of proposed adjustments, including instructions for submitting comments, are detailed in the attached Federal Register notice (click here).

To help ensure that institutions have sufficient time to implement the adjustments, the agencies propose a compliance date that would be at least 12 months after publication of a final rule in the Federal Register.

What's New? ADA Releases Technical Assistance Materials Webpage

The Technical Assistance Materials webpage on ADA.gov has been revised to make it more organized and user friendly. Materials are now arranged by the relevant Title of the ADA as well as by subject matter covered in the documents. Check out the new look of the page here. Read more about the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) here in The Gold Book.

What's New? 401(k) Hardship Distributions

The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 makes several changes to the hardship withdrawal rules that appear to be optional provisions and will become effective January 1, 2019. Read more in The Gold Book, Hardship Distributions section.

What's New? Anti-Harassment Policy and Training Effective Date 10/9/18

NYS has issued final guidance on sexual harassment policy requirements effective October 9, 2018. Sexual harassment training requirements are also final and are effective October 9, 2019. Please see The Gold Book chapter New York State, Anti-Harassment Laws for details.

What's New? Changes to Hardship Withdrawal Rules

There have been recent legislative changes by the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 (“Budget Act”) which affect 401(k) and 403(b) plan hardship withdrawal requirements. The Gold Book has been updated with this information. See Hardship Distributions under 401(k) Plans section.

What's New? Anti-Harassment Legislation

New York State and New York City recently passed several anti-harassment laws in the wake of the #MeToo movement that will soon require employers to provide annual sexual harassment prevention training to all workers, distribute a comprehensive sexual harassment prevention policy, and update their form employment contracts and settlement agreements. All employers with New York State and New York City employees should review their sexual harassment prevention policies, anti-harassment training programs, employment contracts, and settlement agreement forms to revise as necessary as these various new laws take effect.

These requirements begin to take effect on October 9, 2018.

Read more in the Laws Regulating Labor Relations section of the Human Resources chapter of The Gold Book.

What's New? NYS Notice Upon Separation

New guidance has been issued in New York State pertaining to the requirement of notices to employees regarding employees' right to file an application for unemployment benefits. Read more here.

What's New? Beneficial Ownership Rules

Effective May 11, 2018, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued a final rule on beneficial ownership with respect to customer due diligence requirements.   The final rule requires covered financial institutions to adopt due diligence procedures to identify and verify a legal entity customer’s beneficial owner(s) at the time a new account is opened. Further, financial institutions are required to amend their anti-money laundering (AML) program requirements related to collecting, monitoring, and maintaining this information. 

Please see Beneficial Ownership Rule in the Compliance section of The Gold Book.