Final Regulation Summaries

On March 5, 2024, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau) issued a final rule amending Regulation Z and its accompanying commentary to address late fees charged by card issuers that, together with their affiliates, have one million or more open credit card accounts (referred to as “Larger Card Issuers”). This final rule adopts a late fee safe harbor threshold of $8.00 for those issuers and provides that the annual adjustments to reflect changes in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) do not apply to this $8.00 amount.

On November 16, 2023, the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) approved a final rule on charitable donation accounts (CDAs) to amend its definition of “qualified charity” to include any veterans’ organization that meets the requirements of section 501(c)(19) of the Internal Revenue Code.

On September 21, 2023, the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) approved a final rule to amend NCUA regulations related to indirect lending, the purchase of loan participations, and the purchase, sale, and pledge of eligible obligations, as well as notes of liquidating credit unions.

On July 26, 2023, the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) issued a final rule to amend the standard federal credit union bylaws (FCU Bylaws) to adopt a policy by which an FCU member may be expelled for cause by a two-thirds vote of a quorum of the FCU's board of directors.

On April 12, 2023, the Small Business Administration (SBA) issued a final rule amending its business loan program regulations to lift the moratorium on licensing new Small Business Lending Companies (SBLCs) and add a new type of lending entity called a Community Advantage SBLC. SBA is also removing the requirement for a Loan Authorization in the 7(a) and 504 Loan Programs.

On April 10, 2023, the Small Business Administration (SBA) issued a final rule amending various regulations governing SBA's 7(a) and 504 Loan Programs, including regulations on use of proceeds for partial changes of ownership, lending criteria, loan conditions, reconsiderations, and affiliation standards, to expand access to capital to small businesses and drive economic recovery. The amendments to affiliation standards will also apply to the Microloan Program, Intermediary Lending Pilot Program, Surety Bond Guarantee Program, and the Disaster Loan programs (except for the COVID Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) Disaster Loan Program).

On March 30, 2023, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (Bureau) issued a final rule that amends the Bureau’s Regulation B to implement changes made to the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) by section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank).

On March 31, 2023, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) approved a final rule recodifying its prior “Implementation of the Fair Housing Act's Discriminatory Effects Standard” (the 2013 Rule), which established a burden-shifting test for determining whether a given practice has an unjustified discriminatory effect.

On March 16, 2023, the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) approved a final rule to amend its rules governing subordinated debt and grandfathered secondary capital (GSC) to accommodate a longer maximum maturity.

On March 8, 2023, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued a final rule that will allow mortgagees to modify a Federal Housing Administration (FHA) insured mortgage by recasting the total unpaid loan for a new term limit of 480 months to cure a borrower’s default.

On February 16, 2023, the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) Board approved a final rule to require a federally insured credit union (FICU) that experiences a reportable cyber incident to report the incident to the NCUA as soon as possible and no later than 72 hours after the FICU reasonably believes that it has experienced a reportable cyber incident.

On December 16, 2022, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board) adopted a final rule to establish benchmark replacements for contracts that reference the London Inter-Bank Offered Rate (LIBOR) and that do not have terms that provide for the use of a clearly defined and practicable replacement benchmark rate following the discontinuation of LIBOR.

On October 3, 2022, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board) published a final rule amending Regulation II to clarify that debit card issuers must enable, and allow merchants to choose from, at least two unaffiliated networks for card-not-present transactions.

On September 30, 2022, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued a final rule that requires certain entities to file with FinCEN reports that identify the beneficial owners of the entity and individuals who have applied with specified governmental authorities to create the entity or register it to do business.

At its July 21, 2022, meeting, the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) Board unanimously approved a final rule that raises the asset threshold for assigning a consumer federally-insured credit union (FICU) to supervision by the NCUA’s Office of National Examinations and Supervision (ONES) from $10 billion to $15 billion.

On February 17, 2022, the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) Board unanimously approved an interim final rule (IFR) extending temporary regulatory relief from the NCUA’s prompt corrective action (PCA) regulations granted under an April 2021 IFR. The temporary regulatory relief, now set to expire on March 31, 2023, helps ensure federally-insured credit unions (FICUs) will remain operational and liquid as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact FICUs’ balance sheets.

On December 23, 2021, the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) published a final rule to allow qualifying complex credit unions to adopt an alternative measure of risk based capital adequacy called the complex credit union leverage ratio (CCULR).

On December 16, 2021, the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) published a final rule to amend the definition of "Grandfathered Secondary Capital" to include secondary capital issued to the U.S. Government or one of its subdivisions under an application approved before January 1, 2022.

On December 16, 2021, the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) Board issued a final rule that amends part 703 and 721 of its regulations regarding mortgage servicing assets (MSAs).

On November 24, 2021, the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) published a final rule to modernize the definition of “service facility” in the Chartering and Field of Membership manual (Manual) for multiple common bond (MCB) federal credit unions (FCUs) for the purpose of adding groups and underserved areas.

On December 7, 2021, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (the Bureau) published a final rule facilitating the transition away from the London Inter-Bank Offered Rate (LIBOR) interest rate index for consumer financial products.