IR-2021-17, Jan. 19, 2021 WASHINGTON − The Internal Revenue Service today released Notice 2021-11 addressing how employers who elected to defer certain employees’ taxes can withhold and pay the deferred taxes throughout 2021 instead of just the first four months of the year. In response to a presidential memorandum signed Aug. 8, 2020, Notice 2020-65 was issued on Aug. 28, …
CAPITAL ONE PENALIZED FOR BSA VIOLATIONS
FinCEN assessed a $390,000,000 penalty against Capital One for willful and negligent violations of the Bank Secrecy Act. Capital One disregarded its’ obligations to report information that would aid law enforcement in protecting national security. Their failures allowed known criminals to have unchecked access to the nation’s financial system, fostered criminal activity and allowed it to continue and thrive at the …
CFPB DIRECTOR RESIGNS
CFPB Director Kathleen Kraninger resigned at the request of newly sworn-in President Biden. The announced nominee to assume leadership of the CFPB is Rohit Chopra who is currently serving as a federal trade commissioner. Mr. Chopra was formerly at the CFPB as Assistant Director under Richard Cordray. https://thehill.com/policy/finance/535053-consumer-bureau-director-resigns-after-bidens-inauguration
UPDATE: Families First Coronavirus Relief Act
This Update covers two developments related to the March 2020 Families First Coronavirus Relief Act (FFCRA). First, the “paid sick leave” and “expanded family and medical leave” provisions expired on December 31, 2020. Second, Congress gave employers more time to claim tax credits for the paid sick or expanded family or medical leave they provided under the FFCRA. The tax …
PAYCHECK PROTECTION LOANS UPDATE
The SBA issued a news release on Tuesday, January 12th stating over $100 billion in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans have been forgiven in the 3 months since the earliest covered periods ended. The SBA has thus far received over 1.3 million forgiveness applications. Eighty-eight per cent (88%) of the loans for $50,000 or less have been approved for forgiveness. Read …
US MINT INCREASES COIN PRODUCTION
In a report this week the coin shortage is easing since the U.S. Mint ramped up production to a level not seen for several years. The Denver and Philadelphia Mint facilities produced 14.8 billion coins in 2020, which was a 26% increase over the previous year. The scarcity of change was a sudden and unseen economic side-effect of the coronavirus …
State of Illinois Rate Cap Legislation
January 13, 2021 Today the NPA learned of a bill that was passed last night by the Illinois Legislature which includes an Article 15 entitled “Predatory Loan Prevention Act”. “The Act” caps the interest at 36%APR and applies to any person or entity that offers or makes a loan to a consumer in Illinois, except banks, savings banks, savings and loan associations, …
2021 Congressional Calendar
The 2021 Congressional Calendar has been released and you can access a copy from the NPA website www.nationalpawnbrokers.org or here https://content.rollcall.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/2021-CQRC-CongressionalCalendar-1.pdf Our annual Legislative Conference will be held on April 19-21, 2021. You will see on the calendar that both the House and Senate are in session at that time. Obviously due to COVID-19 concerns and heightened security at the …
Federal Consumer Financial Law Report
The CFPB’s Taskforce on Federal Consumer Financial Law released their lengthy report on January 5th and includes numerous mentions of the pawn industry. You can read their news release here… https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/consumer-financial-protection-bureaus-taskforce-on-federal-consumer-financial-law-releases-its-report/ At the bottom of the news release, you’ll find links to Volumes 1 and 2 of the Report. There are 798 pages in Volume 1 and if you view it in Adobe Acrobat use ‘pawn’ in the search …
OCC’s Proposed Rule on Fair Access to Financial Services
We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who took the time to submit a post in support of the OCC’s Proposed Rule on “Fair Access to Financial Services”. Many of you not only agreed with the NPA’s official comment letter but related your own experiences with heartfelt statements about how bank discontinuance of pawnbrokers affected your business, employees, and …
NPA Files Comment on OCC Proposed Rule “Fair Access to Financial Services”
Today we filed the NPA’s comment to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s “Fair Access to Financial Services” proposed rule. You may access this comment on the NPA website www.nationalpawnbrokers.org. Team GRC has been working on this ever since the OCC posted this proposed rule on Nov. 25th. I will cautiously say this is the first ‘official’ glimmer of …
Additional Coronavirus Response and Relief
Last evening, Congress passed legislation that provides more COVID-19 relief to individuals and small businesses. Team GRC obtained an advance copy of the 5,593-page bill and provide you with the following: Payments to Individuals and Expanded Unemployment Benefits: Individual Stimulus Payments: Adults and children will be eligible for one-time stimulus payments of $600 per person if the household’s income is …
Congress Continues with Version of 2020 Bipartisan COVID-19 Emergency Relief Act
The Country waits while Congress continues the back and forth on the latest version of a Bipartisan COVID-19 Emergency Relief Act of 2020 Here are some “good” highlights: Forgivable expenses on a second PPP loans will include supplier costs and investments in facility modifications and PPE. Expenses paid with PPP proceeds will be tax deductible — apparently these members of Congress …
Huntington Bancshares to merge with TCF Financial in all-stock deal
From CNBC: Huntington Bank will acquire TCF Bank to make what some are calling a “Midwestern powerhouse.” GRC watches all major bank mergers to decide whether to prepare a comment for the NPA and to keep tabs on impending, regulatory-driven bank discontinuance outbreaks. Read more…
Senate Votes To Approve National Defense Authorization Act
On Friday, the Senate voted 84-13 to approve the National Defense Authorization Act, which contains an anti-money laundering amendment that requires businesses to report their true owners to FinCEN at the time of incorporation. The measure would relieve banks from this information collection and reporting. The House previously passed the defense spending bill by a vote of 335-78, which together with the …
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