Links in “Credit Unions”

While the proposal would extend share insurance coverage to lawyers’s trust accounts (IOLTAs), it does not achieve full parity with the FDIC.  According to CUNA, the NCUA has the authority to and should extend coverage to prepaid and stored-value cards, as well. [7/13/15]

The CFPB has restated guidance on providing mortgage applicants with a list of homeownership counseling organizations. The Bureau has also added further guidance for mortgage lenders in this interpretive rule. What was added? AffirmX Analyst Henry Miles breaks down what the CFPB now expects from mortgage lenders. [7/10/15]

The New York Credit Union Association (NYCUA) recently finalized a strategic partnership with AffirmX, LLC, a provider of risk and compliance solutions. Through AffirmX, NYCUA member credit unions will have access to a wide variety of services, including the patented Risk Intel Center software. [7/10/15]

The CFPB believes that new electronic payment systems need to be secure, transparent, accessible, and affordable to consumers. To that end the CFPB has released recommendations to the private sector for the development of new payment systems that will, among other things, provide consumers with more control over individual payments, allow consumers the ability to determine what data may be transferred with a transaction, and allow for real-time access to information about transaction status, risks, and costs. [7/10/15

NCUA Board member Mark McWatters says that the recent collective bargaining agreement between NCUA and the National Treasury Employees Union was not handled in an appropriate manner. He states that he was not provided with a draft of the agreement, wasn’t given the opportunity to comment on the agreement during the negotiation process, and that the final agreement was not presented to the Board for vetting or for approval or rejection.

Five senators have introduced a bipartisan bill that would give state-compliant marijuana businesses access to banking services by affording protection to financial institutions against prosecution or asset forfeiture if they  provide services to these businesses. While similar bills have been introduced in the House in the past, the Marijuana Business Access to Banking Act of 2015 is the first such bill to be introduced in the Senate. [7/10/15]

Maybe it’s something in the water? Two former CEOs were sentenced on the same day in the same U.S. district court for embezzling funds from their Virginia credit unions. The former CEO in the most egregious case was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison and ordered to pay $11.7 million in restitution as a result of a pyramid scheme based on fraudulent loans. [7/10/15

The NCUA has approved a charter for ELCA Federal Credit Union in Chicago, IL, which will serve the employees, members, synods, and member congregations of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. ELCA FCU is the first new credit union chartered in Illinois since 2006. [7/9/15

A report issued by the Senate Finance Committee’s Business Income Tax Bipartisan Tax Working Group does not contain any recommendations to change credit unions’ federal tax exemption. There is no expectation that any major tax reform will occur in 2015. [7/9/15]

Attorneys for Home Depot claim that “Noticeably absent is any plausible allegation of concrete injury traceable to Home Depot U.S.A., Inc. or The Home Depot, Inc.” and have submitted a motion to dismiss the data breach suit filed by over 100 plaintiffs, including financial institutions in over 44 states. Attorneys for the claimants blasted the move and plaintiffs attorneys’ claim that the expenses incurred by the plaintiffs were voluntary in order to protect themselves against future harm. [7/9/15]