The USA Patriot Act
In response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001 also known as the USA PATRIOT Act has established ways to identify and intercept terrorist financial networks within and outside the United States of America.
For lending industry, we focus in the Title III of the Patriot Act – “International Money Laundering Abatement and Anti-Terrorist Financing Act of 2001”. We are required to create a customer Identification Program (CIP), an anti-money laundering program and information sharing with financial institutions and law enforcement agencies.
To meet the CIP standards, any applicants must:
For more information regarding The USA Patriot Act, please visit:
https://www.justice.gov/archive/ll/highlights.htm
The Bank Secrecy Act
The Bank Secrecy Act of 1970 (BSA), also known as the Currency and Foreign Transactions Reporting Act and sometimes referred as the Anti-Money Laundering law (AML) or jointly as BSA/AML.
BSA requires lending companies in the United States to help U.S. government agencies in detecting and preventing any money laundering. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCen) of Bureau of the Department of Treasury published rules and requirements for Residential Lenders and Originators to have an AML and file Suspicious Activity Reports (SAR) under the BSA.
Every lending company has a written AML program.
It includes:
Suspicious Activity Reports (SARS)
The Compliance Officer complete the SARS. It must report transactions that are conducted or attempted through the finance company involving $5,000 or more. Suspicious activity is the trigger, application may be at any stage of the process, and transactions are reportable regardless of whether currency is involved. Any staffs should report any suspicious activities to the compliance officer. The SARS is confidential. It MUST not disclose any SARS. It must be filed within 30 days of the initial detection.
For more information regarding Bank Secrecy Act, please visit:
https://www.occ.treas.gov/topics/supervision-and-examination/bsa/index-bsa.html
The Fair Housing Act
The Fair Housing Act protects people from discrimination against Race, Color, Religion, National Origin, Sex, Disability and Familial status.
We conduct our business in accordance with the Fair Housing Act’s guidelines .
For more information regarding the Fair Housing Act, please visit:
https://www.hud.gov/program_offices/fair_housing_equal_opp/fair_housing_act_overview
Equal Housing Lender
We conduct our business in accordance with the Federal Fair Housing Act. It prohibits discrimination in housing relation transactions based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status and disability.
For more information regarding the Equal Housing Lender, you can call 1-800-669-9777 (toll free), or 1-800-927-9275 (tdd), or write to:
Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity
Department of Housing and Urban Development
Room 5204
451 Seventh St. SW
Washington, DC 20410-2000
Or https://www.hud.gov/program_offices/fair_housing_equal_opp/online-complaint
Fair Lending Policy
The federal fair lending laws is a combination of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) and Fair Housing Act (FHA). They prevent discrimination of residential real estate
in credit transactions.
ECOA or regulation B prohibits discriminations based on: Race, Religion, Nation Origin, Sex, Marital Status, Age, Receipt of income from public assistance program and the good faith exercise of any right under the Consumer Credit Protection Act.
The Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) requires financial institution to provide mortgage data to the public. The data includes but not limit to Date of mortgage application, loan type (conventional, FHA or VA etc), type of properties (single family or multifamily), purpose of loan (home purchase, home improvement or refinance), owner occupancy of property (owner or non-owner occupied), the loan amount , Whether or not the application was a request for pre-approval , the type of action taken (approved, denied, withdrawn, etc.) , the date of action taken , the location (state, county, MSA and census tract) of the property , the ethnicity (Hispanic or non-Hispanic) of the borrower(s), the race of the borrower(s) , the gender of the borrower(s)
, the gross annual income of the borrower(s), if the loan was subsequently sold in the secondary market, the type of entity that purchased it, if the loan was denied, the reason why it was denied (this field is optional for entities not regulated by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency) , rate Spread (Rate spread is a metric that assists in reporting if the rate given to the borrower is above a certain threshold of the prevailing rates at the time of the application) , if the loan is or is not subject to the Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act of 1994 and lien status of the loan (1st or 2nd lien).
The Fair Housing Act protects the buyer of a dwelling from seller discrimination. It prohibit to make unlawful to sell or negotiate with any person because of the person’s inclusion in the protected class.
Our business do not discriminate any customers based on their Race, Religion, Nation Origin, Sex, Marital Status, Age, Receipt of income from public assistance program and the good faith exercise of any right under the Consumer Credit Protection Act. Our business do NOT selectively encourage or discourage or take no action any reasonable persons from applying for a loan. We do not refuse a loan, vary the terms offered including the amount, interest rate, period or type of loan, or use different standards to evaluate collateral or decide whether to extend credit. We avoid practices that have a discriminatory effect. This rule applies to all phases of our lending business. It applies even though we do not intend the policy or practice to be discriminatory and even if the policy or practice appears to be neutral. We have adopted nondiscriminatory loan underwriting standards that avoid subjective, unwritten rules that can have a discriminatory effect. We make these underwriting standards public upon request our office(s). We display the poster in a public area of each of our facilities stating that we are ascribing to the Equal Housing Act. Additionally, on all forms of advertisements, regardless of media, we include the Equal Housing Opportunity logo and/or the Equal Housing Opportunity slogan. Our scoring system is empirically derived and statistically sound and uses no prohibited basis other than age as a predictive factor. Every staffs practices fair processing and underwriting. Our business ensure the practice of Fair Lending practices are implemented with loan underwriting standards. We also review our portfolio and applications to reflect our community’s demographic characteristics.
For more information regarding the Fair Lending Policy, please refer to:
https://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/supmanual/cch/fair_lend_over.pdf
In response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001 also known as the USA PATRIOT Act has established ways to identify and intercept terrorist financial networks within and outside the United States of America.
For lending industry, we focus in the Title III of the Patriot Act – “International Money Laundering Abatement and Anti-Terrorist Financing Act of 2001”. We are required to create a customer Identification Program (CIP), an anti-money laundering program and information sharing with financial institutions and law enforcement agencies.
To meet the CIP standards, any applicants must:
- Collect name, birthday, address and identification number (SSN or TIN, passport number or alien identification card number for any non-U.S. citizens).
- Verify the collected information such as SSN or TIN, , passport number or alien identification card number for any non-U.S. citizens. Additional documents may be needed.
- Maintain records of all information for any customers’ identity and keep records for 5 years after the paid off date of the loan.
- Compare the customer’s identity to any list of known or suspected terrorists or any known terrorist organizations.
- Verbally or written notification that identity verification is necessary to open any new accounts.
For more information regarding The USA Patriot Act, please visit:
https://www.justice.gov/archive/ll/highlights.htm
The Bank Secrecy Act
The Bank Secrecy Act of 1970 (BSA), also known as the Currency and Foreign Transactions Reporting Act and sometimes referred as the Anti-Money Laundering law (AML) or jointly as BSA/AML.
BSA requires lending companies in the United States to help U.S. government agencies in detecting and preventing any money laundering. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCen) of Bureau of the Department of Treasury published rules and requirements for Residential Lenders and Originators to have an AML and file Suspicious Activity Reports (SAR) under the BSA.
Every lending company has a written AML program.
It includes:
- Designation and naming of a compliance officer and ensure that the AML program is implemented effectively and updated, appropriate persons are educated and trained.
- Establishing policies and procedures for preventing and collecting reportable information, identifying reportable events and suspicious activity reports (SAR).
- Establish employee training program with both on-board and annual training.
- Independent testing – does not need to be annual but must be based on size and complexity of the financial institution (lending business)
Suspicious Activity Reports (SARS)
The Compliance Officer complete the SARS. It must report transactions that are conducted or attempted through the finance company involving $5,000 or more. Suspicious activity is the trigger, application may be at any stage of the process, and transactions are reportable regardless of whether currency is involved. Any staffs should report any suspicious activities to the compliance officer. The SARS is confidential. It MUST not disclose any SARS. It must be filed within 30 days of the initial detection.
For more information regarding Bank Secrecy Act, please visit:
https://www.occ.treas.gov/topics/supervision-and-examination/bsa/index-bsa.html
The Fair Housing Act
The Fair Housing Act protects people from discrimination against Race, Color, Religion, National Origin, Sex, Disability and Familial status.
We conduct our business in accordance with the Fair Housing Act’s guidelines .
For more information regarding the Fair Housing Act, please visit:
https://www.hud.gov/program_offices/fair_housing_equal_opp/fair_housing_act_overview
Equal Housing Lender
We conduct our business in accordance with the Federal Fair Housing Act. It prohibits discrimination in housing relation transactions based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status and disability.
For more information regarding the Equal Housing Lender, you can call 1-800-669-9777 (toll free), or 1-800-927-9275 (tdd), or write to:
Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity
Department of Housing and Urban Development
Room 5204
451 Seventh St. SW
Washington, DC 20410-2000
Or https://www.hud.gov/program_offices/fair_housing_equal_opp/online-complaint
Fair Lending Policy
The federal fair lending laws is a combination of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) and Fair Housing Act (FHA). They prevent discrimination of residential real estate
in credit transactions.
ECOA or regulation B prohibits discriminations based on: Race, Religion, Nation Origin, Sex, Marital Status, Age, Receipt of income from public assistance program and the good faith exercise of any right under the Consumer Credit Protection Act.
The Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) requires financial institution to provide mortgage data to the public. The data includes but not limit to Date of mortgage application, loan type (conventional, FHA or VA etc), type of properties (single family or multifamily), purpose of loan (home purchase, home improvement or refinance), owner occupancy of property (owner or non-owner occupied), the loan amount , Whether or not the application was a request for pre-approval , the type of action taken (approved, denied, withdrawn, etc.) , the date of action taken , the location (state, county, MSA and census tract) of the property , the ethnicity (Hispanic or non-Hispanic) of the borrower(s), the race of the borrower(s) , the gender of the borrower(s)
, the gross annual income of the borrower(s), if the loan was subsequently sold in the secondary market, the type of entity that purchased it, if the loan was denied, the reason why it was denied (this field is optional for entities not regulated by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency) , rate Spread (Rate spread is a metric that assists in reporting if the rate given to the borrower is above a certain threshold of the prevailing rates at the time of the application) , if the loan is or is not subject to the Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act of 1994 and lien status of the loan (1st or 2nd lien).
The Fair Housing Act protects the buyer of a dwelling from seller discrimination. It prohibit to make unlawful to sell or negotiate with any person because of the person’s inclusion in the protected class.
Our business do not discriminate any customers based on their Race, Religion, Nation Origin, Sex, Marital Status, Age, Receipt of income from public assistance program and the good faith exercise of any right under the Consumer Credit Protection Act. Our business do NOT selectively encourage or discourage or take no action any reasonable persons from applying for a loan. We do not refuse a loan, vary the terms offered including the amount, interest rate, period or type of loan, or use different standards to evaluate collateral or decide whether to extend credit. We avoid practices that have a discriminatory effect. This rule applies to all phases of our lending business. It applies even though we do not intend the policy or practice to be discriminatory and even if the policy or practice appears to be neutral. We have adopted nondiscriminatory loan underwriting standards that avoid subjective, unwritten rules that can have a discriminatory effect. We make these underwriting standards public upon request our office(s). We display the poster in a public area of each of our facilities stating that we are ascribing to the Equal Housing Act. Additionally, on all forms of advertisements, regardless of media, we include the Equal Housing Opportunity logo and/or the Equal Housing Opportunity slogan. Our scoring system is empirically derived and statistically sound and uses no prohibited basis other than age as a predictive factor. Every staffs practices fair processing and underwriting. Our business ensure the practice of Fair Lending practices are implemented with loan underwriting standards. We also review our portfolio and applications to reflect our community’s demographic characteristics.
For more information regarding the Fair Lending Policy, please refer to:
https://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/supmanual/cch/fair_lend_over.pdf