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? IRS Form 1098 Reporting

The Gold Book section has been updated to include changes related to Form 1098 mortgage interest reporting. See Form 1098 under the Reporting Compliance chapter.

What's New? NJ Estate Tax Repeal

On October 14 Governor Christie signed into law a repeal of the New Jersey estate tax. More specifically, as of January 1, 2017 the $675,000 exemption amount will be increased to $2 million, and as of January 1, 2018 the estate tax will be repealed altogether. 

See The Gold Book for more information on Estate and Inheritance Tax Waivers.

What's New? 2017 Cost-of-Living Adjustments

The Internal Revenue Service announced cost‑of‑living adjustments affecting dollar limitations for pension plans and other retirement-related items for tax year 2017. In general, the pension plan limitations will not change for 2017 because the increase in the cost-of-living index did not meet the statutory thresholds that trigger their adjustment.

However, other limitations will change because the increase in the index did meet the statutory thresholds.

See the following sections in The Gold Book for updates:

Income phase-out for IRA deductions, click here.

Roth IRA contribution phase-out, click here.

AGI limit for Saver's Credit, click here.

Cost-of Living Chart, click here.

Military Lending Act: Examination Procedures, Interpretive Rule, and the FDIC'S Supervisory Expectations

In July 2015, the Department of Defense (DOD) issued a final rule amending the implementing regulations of the Military Lending Act of 2006 (MLA). The final rule expands specific protections provided to servicemembers and their dependents under the MLA and addresses a wider range of credit products than the DOD's previous regulation.

In August 2016, DOD published an interpretive rule in the Federal Register that provides guidance on certain questions received regarding compliance with the July 2015 Final Rule. The DOD issued its interpretive rule to inform the public of its views. The interpretive rule, comprised of 19 questions and answers, does not substantively change the regulation implementing the MLA, but rather merely states DOD's preexisting interpretation of an existing regulation.

The FDIC has released examination procedures that reflect the Department of Defense's (DOD) 2015 amendments to the implementing regulations of the Military Lending Act of 2006 (MLA).

See The Gold Book, Military Lending Act for details.

What's New? Reclamation of Federal Benefits

The Preauthorized Electronc Transfer chapter of The Gold Book has been updated to include information pertaining to the reclamation of federal benefits.

Reclamation is a procedure used by the Federal government (government) to recover benefitpayments made through the Automated Clearing House (ACH) to the account of a recipient who died or became legally incapacitated or a beneficiary who died before the date of the payment(s).

What's New? IRA Rollover Waivers

New IRS Revenue Procedure 2016-47 permits eligible taxpayers, encountering a variety of mitigating circumstances, can qualify for a waiver of the 60-day time limit and avoid possible early distribution taxes. In addition, the revenue procedure includes a sample self-certification letter that a taxpayer can use to notify the administrator or trustee of the retirement plan or IRA receiving the rollover that they qualify for the waiver. See Waivers in the Pension Chapter of The Gold Book. 

Uniform Residential Loan App to be Redesigned

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have redesigned their common mortgage application. Effective in January 2018, the Uniform Residential Loan Application will collect additional HMDA data, remove some obsolete items, and feature capabilities to promote digital use.

What's New? Roth IRA Direct Rollovers

The IRS finalized a taxpayer-friendly rule eliminating the requirement that each disbursement from a designated Roth account that is directly rolled over to an eligible retirement plan be treated as a separate distribution from any amount paid directly to the employee . The former rule meant that these amounts were separately subject to allocation of pretax and after-tax amounts for each distribution. See more at: Direct Rollovers in The Gold Book. 

What's New? HMDA Rules

Significant amendments have been made to the collection and reporting of applicant or borrower information. The majority of the provisions will be effective on January 1, 2018. Covered institutions will collect the new HMDA information in 2018 and report it by March 1, 2019. Until final rules are issued the following rules apply. 

For more information go to The Gold Book, Home Mortgage Disclosure Act.

What's New? Military Lending Act

On July 21, 2015, the Department of Defense (DOD) issued a final rule amending the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act  called the “Military Lending Act” (MLA). The final rule expands coverage of the current regulation to include many non-mortgage related credit transactions covered by the Truth in Lending Act (TILA), as implemented by Regulation Z. It provides safe harbor methods for identifying borrowers covered by the final rule, prohibits the use of certain practices, and amends the content of the required disclosures. The final rule also contains new provisions about administrative enforcement, penalties and remedies. 

See The Gold Book: John Warner National Defense Authorization Act and Military Lending Act.

Call Report Burden Reduction Initiative

As part of its community bank Call Report burden-reduction initiative, the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) has approved a number of burden-reducing changes to the Consolidated Reports of Condition and Income (Call Report) as well as certain new and revised data items and instructional revisions. Subject to approval by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, these Call Report revisions will take effect September 30, 2016, or March 31, 2017, depending on the change.

Additional information may be found at:  http://www.fdic.gov/news/news/financial/2016/fil16045.html

What's New? Overtime Pay Rule

On May 18, 2016 President Obama and Secretary Perez announced the publication of the Department of Labor’s final rule updating the overtime regulations, which will automatically extend overtime pay protections to over 4 million workers within the first year of implementation. This long-awaited update will result in a meaningful boost to many workers’ wallets, and will go a long way toward realizing President Obama’s commitment to ensuring every worker is compensated fairly for their hard work. For more information, please see Overtime Pay in The Gold Book or visit www.dol.gov/whd/overtime/final2016.

MasterCard Network Enhancements

MasterCard is introducing a multitude of authorization processing changes that include new methods to identify the type of authorization, changes to authorization reversal timeframes, changes to chargeback timeframes, and the extension of incremental authorizations to all merchant types.

These changes will help issuers effectively manage cardholders open to buy, and to manage chargeback protection maximum timeframe limits based on authorization types.  

 

IRA Penalty Free Distributions Expanded

The Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015 (the PATH Act) was signed into law on Friday, December 18. Parts of the act include a provision that expands a taxpayer's ability to take a penalty-free distribution from an IRA nd Coverdell Education IRAs for higher education.

The list of eligible expenses that are not subject to the IRS 10% early distribution penalty has been expanded to include expenses for the purchase of computers and related equipment, software, and internet access expenses, if used primarily by a student during any of the years they are in school. 

See more in The Gold Book: Educational Expenses Rule and Coverdell Education Savings Accounts Distributions.

CFPB Proposal to End Payday Debt Traps

In June, 2016, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) proposed a rule aimed at ending payday debt traps by requiring lenders to take steps to make sure consumers have the ability to repay their loans. The proposed rule would also cut off repeated debit attempts that rack up fees. These strong proposed protections would cover payday loans, auto title loans, deposit advance products, and certain high-cost installment and open-end loans. The CFPB is also launching an inquiry into other products and practices that may harm consumers facing cash shortfalls. 

A factsheet summarizing the proposed rule is available at:http://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/documents/CFPB_Proposes_Rule_End_Payday_Debt_Traps.pdf

Host State Loan-to-Deposit Ratios Updated

Joint agencies issued host state loan-to-deposit ratios that they will use to determine compliance with section 109 of the Riegle-Neal Interstate Banking and Branching Efficiency Act of 1994. These ratios replace the prior year’s ratios, which were released on June 29, 2015.

In general, section 109 prohibits:

• a bank from establishing or acquiring a branch or branches outside of its home state primarily for the purpose of deposit production, and
• branches of banks controlled by out-of-state bank holding companies from operating primarily for the purpose of deposit production.

Section 109 also provides a process to test compliance with the statutory requirements. A bank that fails both steps is in violation of section 109 and is subject to sanctions by the appropriate agency.

The updated host state loan-to-deposit ratios may be found here.

What's New? NYC Human Rights Law

The Human Rights Law section of the Human Resources chapter has been updated to include new laws regarding the Criminal Records and Employment Credit Checks when evaluating potential job candidates. 

What's New? New text added to Human Resources chapter

The Laws Regulating Labor Relations section of the Human Resources chapter has been update to include information about Meal Breaks for employees and Time Off to Vote in elections. 

What's New? Federal Holiday Schedule

The Federal Holiday Schedule has been updated through 2019. Click here to view.