Bank Notes

  • April 4, 2016
    On Monday, April 4, 2016, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston President and CEO Eric Rosengren offered his assessment of economic and cyber risks. On the economic front, Mr. Rosengren stated the financial markets may be underestimating the growth trajectory for the Fed Funds Rate. While global economic instability earlier in the year—arising from China and Europe—had caused the futures market to...
  • April 4, 2016
    The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, on Monday, April 4, 2016, hosted an “Ending Too Big to Fail” symposium. The forum was the next step in the Minneapolis Fed’s #EndingTBTF initiative, which aims to have an “actionable plan to end TBTF” by the end of the year. The event featured remarks from Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari, a keynote lunch, and two panel sessions...
  • April 1, 2016
    On Friday, April 1, 2016, the CFPB published the Consumer Response Report for 2015. The report indicated, as of March 2016, the CFPB has “handled” more than 834, 400 complaints and complaint volume increased by 8% year over year. Of the complaints received in 2015, 31% were debt collection, 20% were credit reporting, and 19% were mortgage related. In total, the CFPB sent 63% of complaints to...
  • March 31, 2016
    On Thursday, March 31, 2016, Comptroller of the Currency Thomas Curry in a speech at Harvard Kennedy School's New Directions in Regulation Seminar released a long anticipated white paper entitled: "Supporting Responsible Innovation in the Federal Banking System: An OCC Perspective." The white paper published the OCC's definition of responsible innovation, which is "[t]he use of new or improved...
  • March 30, 2016
    This week, the CFPB indicated credit card issuers will receive an email with updated instructions regarding submission requirements for sending credit card agreements to the Bureau per The Truth in Lending Act and Regulation Z. The one-year reprieve from this requirement now has expired. The CFPB has attempted to alleviate the submission burden by allowing issuers to send webpage links in lieu of...
  • March 30, 2016
    On Wednesday, March 30, 2016, the Federal Reserve (Fed) issued the results of its fifth annual survey on Consumers and Mobile Financial Services, which showed consumer adoption of mobile phones has plateaued at 87 percent. However, the percentage of mobile phone that are smartphones climbed 6 points to 71 percent. While mobile banking usage in general jumped 4 points, usage on smartphones only...
  • March 30, 2016
    On Wednesday, March 30, 2016, the CFPB issued a consent order to stop a student loan debt relief scam which allegedly tricked borrowers into paying fees for federal loan benefits and misrepresented to consumers it was affiliated with the U.S. Department of Education. The CFPB ordered the company, Student Aid Institute, Inc., and its CEO, Steven Lamont, to pay a penalty, halt debt relief services...
  • March 29, 2016
    On Tuesday, March 29, 2016, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen gave a speech on monetary policy to the Economic Club of New York. In her remarks, she reiterated the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) "expects that economic conditions will evolve in a manner that will warrant only gradual increases in the federal funds rate." Describing the FOMC’s position as a forecast “not a plan set in stone...
  • March 29, 2016
    On Tuesday, March 29, 2016, the CFPB released its latest monthly consumer complaint snapshot , focusing this month on debt collection and the state of Florida. The Bureau received 834,400 complaints across all covered products as of March 1, 2016, of which debt collection complaints represent 26 percent (or 219,200). The most frequent complaints included continued attempts to collect debt not...
  • March 28, 2016
    On March 28, 2016, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report titled: “Financial Regulation: Complex and Fragmented Structure Could Be Streamlined to Improve Effectiveness.” According to the GAO report, the U.S. financial regulatory structure is too complex and fragmented. The report finds, while the current structure allows for effective financial regulation in some key areas,...

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