Financial institutions often note concerns about compliance
burdens associated with federal regulations in letters to Congress advocating
changes to applicable laws and to the agencies charged with crafting their
implementing regulations.
Federal banking agencies recently put out a statutorily
required call for comments on what they can do to ease regulatory burdens for
supervised entities.
Learn more about that, as well as other recent developments
announced by federal agencies below:
Agencies seek comments on reducing regulatory burden
Federal banking regulators announced the first in a planned
series of requests for feedback on how federal regulatory agencies can reduce
burdens on the financial marketplace. The Economic Growth and Regulatory
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1996 requires the Federal Financial Institutions
Examination Council (FFIEC) and federal bank regulatory agencies to review
their regulations every 10 years to identify any outdated or otherwise
unnecessary regulatory requirements for their supervised institutions.
The agencies divided their regulations into 12 categories,
three of which will be subject to the first round of solicited feedback. These
categories are: Applications and Reporting, Powers and Activities and
International Operations. Comments on the relevant regulations will be accepted
for 90 days after publication in the Federal Register. More
information can be found here.
FHFA reports 6.6 percent uptick in home price index
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) recently reported
a year-over-year increase in U.S. home prices. The agency’s seasonally adjusted
monthly House Price Index (HPI) indicated that house prices rose 6.6
percent from November 2022 to November 2023. The 0.3 percent price
increase in October remained unchanged. For the nine census divisions
considered by the index, seasonally adjusted monthly price changes from October
2023 to November 2023 ranged from -0.2 percent in the New England
division to +0.7 percent in the Mountain division. The 12-month
changes ranged from +3.1 percent in the West South Central division
to +9.8 percent in the New England division. Learn more here.
FDIC releases latest CRA examination list
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) issued its list
of state nonmember banks recently evaluated for compliance with the Community
Reinvestment Act (CRA). The list covers evaluation ratings that the FDIC
assigned to institutions in November 2023. Twelve financial institutions across
nine states are represented on the list, which can be found here.
GAO issues 2024 ‘Yellow Book,’
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently
issued its 2024 revision of Government Auditing Standards, also known as
the Yellow Book. Commonly
referred to as generally accepted government auditing standards (GAGAS), these
standards provide a framework that auditors around the world use to perform
high-quality audit work when reviewing government programs and spending. The
updates include: a change in approach from quality control to quality
management; a risk-based process for achieving the objectives of quality
management; provisions for optional engagement quality reviews of GAGAS
engagements; and application guidance on key audit matters for financial audits.
Learn more here.