All in Regulatory Update

On August 15, 2023, CFPB Director Rohit Chopra spoke at a White House Roundtable on Protecting Americans from Harmful Data Practices where he announced that the Bureau has decided to launch a rulemaking to ensure that modern-day digital data brokers are not misusing or abusing consumers' sensitive data. According to Chopra, the proposals aim to ensure that modern-day data companies assembling profiles about consumers are meeting the requirements under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

On August 14, 2023,  the FDIC  published its 2023 Risk Review, which summarizes conditions in the U.S. economy, financial markets, and banking industry. According to the FDIC, this year’s expanded report incorporates data and insights related to the recent stress to the banking sector through first quarter 2023.

On August 4, 2023, FinCEN announced that officials from FinCEN traveled to Mexico City to reinforce its continuing commitment to close collaboration with the Mexican government to combat illicit finance. On August 2, FinCEN hosted a cross-border roundtable on the shared priorities of combating fentanyl and other drug trafficking, human smuggling and trafficking, and other predicate crimes. The dialogue was participated by U.S. and Mexican financial institutions, U.S. and Mexican regulators and financial intelligence units, and U.S. law enforcement.

On July 31 2023, the ABA Banking Journal published an article announcing a Federal judge’s decision to block the enforcement of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Section 1071 final rule while the Supreme Court hears a challenge to the constitutionality of the CFPB’s funding structure. This delay, however, does not apply to all financial institutions, so those needing more information regarding this delay should seek legal counsel.

FinCEN has updated its “SAR Filings by Industry” webpage to include data from 2022. In addition to this webpage, FinCEN has an interactive map and and Interactive SAR Stats which allow BSA professionals to analyze what types of suspicious activity are being reported in their areas. As this data allows specific sorting of the data, BSA professionals are able to sort by many different fields including primary regulator, county, industry, etc.

On August 2, 2023, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the National Association of Real Estate Brokers (NAREB) announced a partnership aimed at tackling appraisal bias and discrimination in the housing market. The said collaboration, which is set to launch in the coming months, will increase education, outreach, and efforts to combat racial appraisal bias in home property valuation.