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» VISIT US ONLINE @ DSNEWS.COM 57 DS News Government Progress Report k ey per sonnel Thomas J. Curry Comptroller of the Currency Also serves as a director of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and NeighborWorks America Paul M. Nash Senior Deputy Controller and Chief of Staff Amy S. Friend Senior Deputy Comptroller and Chief Counsel John C. Lyons Senior Deputy Comptroller Bank Supervision Policy and Chief National Bank Examiner Jennifer C. Kelly Senior Deputy Comptroller Midsize and Community Bank Supervision Martin Pfinsgraff Senior Deputy Comptroller for Large Bank Supervision Kathy K. Murphy Acting Senior Deputy Comptroller Management and Chief Financial Officer David Nebhut Senior Deputy Comptroller for Economics Larry L. Hattix Senior Deputy Comptroller for Enterprise Governance and Ombudsman DS News Housing Score C BUSINESS SCOPE The OCC regulates and supervises approximately 2,000 national banks and federal savings associa- tions and 50 federal branches of foreign banks in the U.S. This encompasses more than three-quarters of the total assets of all U.S. commercial banks. REGULATION AND OVERSIGHT The OCC is an independent bureau of the United States Department of the Treasury and is directed by the Comptroller of the Currency, appointed to a five-year term by the President with the consent of the Senate. MISSION » The OCC's mission is to charter, regulate, and super- vise national banks and federal savings associations and to supervise the federal branches and agencies of foreign banks. » As the banking industry enforcement arm of Treasury, OCC has overseen paybacks by banks to borrowers hurt by lending practices during the recession. » Although Dodd–Frank's creation of the CFPB changed how many consumer financial services are regulated, the OCC retained a number of its consumer related responsibilities. » Under Dodd–Frank, the OCC continues to oversee bank compliance with the Flood Disaster Protec- tion Act, the Community Reinvestment Act, and the Service members Civil Relief Act. » This agency also continues to be responsible for examining all areas of consumer compliance for banks with 10 billion in assets or less, a cut-off that covers the great majority of banks in the United States. » In other areas, such as credit card and mortgage lending, OCC authority overlaps with that of the CFPB. SUCCESSES » Mortgage lending is a key barometer of the health of banks, consumers, and the » general economy. The OCC Mortgage Metrics Report for 2013, which tracks the performance of roughly 52 percent of all U.S. mortgages outstand- ing, showed that 90.6 percent of mortgages were current, compared with 90.2 percent in the previous quarter and 88.7 percent a year earlier. » Seriously delinquent mortgages, those 60 or more days past due, fell to 3.8 percent of all mortgages, compared with 4.4 percent a year earlier. » The OCC's most recent enforcement involved a $37 million payback by EverBank to borrowers whose homes were in any stage of foreclosure in 2009 and 2010. » Pursuant to the Dodd-Frank rule, in November 2012, the OCC released macroeconomic stress test scenarios, and institutions with $50 billion or more in assets conducted stress tests using these sce- narios and submitted results to the OCC in January. Institutions with between $10 billion and $50 billion in assets were required to begin conducting annual stress tests in fall 2013. » The scenarios include baseline, adverse, and severely adverse scenarios. Each scenario includes 28 variables including economic activity, unemploy- ment, exchange rates, prices, incomes, and interest rates. The adverse and severely adverse scenarios are not forecasts, but rather hypothetical scenarios designed to assess the strength and resilience of financial institutions. OPPORTUNITIES/ISSUES » The OCC and its director, Thomas Curry, have re- ceived a lot of criticism and many say they have done nothing to improve the banking system and prevent future disasters such as the one the nation recently experienced. They say that the OCC is pushing the same agenda as they previously did. » At Senate hearings last year, representatives from the OCC and the Fed could not explain why they did not prosecute the banks that committed so many fraudulent transactions related to foreclosures. They also could not explain the meager payouts sent as restitution to victims of foreclosure fraud, with average checks in the amount of $300, some of which bounced. » Sources report there should have been an immedi- ate criminal investigation, but there wasn't. The OCC and the Federal Reserve created an independent foreclosure review that did little. » Sen. Elizabeth Warren criticized the OCC for essen- tially aiding and abetting the banks to cover up their conduct by failing to deliver evidence of wrongdo- ing to consumers who may be considering private lawsuits against the banks. » Some analysts report the OCC bears the hallmarks of a rogue agency, or at best an incompetent one. The number of loans in the process of foreclosure at the end of the fourth quarter of 2013 decreased 45.9 percent from a year earlier. Completed foreclosures decreased 42.6 percent compared to a year ago. The number of home retention actions implemented by servicers decreased 34.0 percent from a year earlier. Servicers have modified 3,388,010 mortgages from the beginning of 2008 through the end of the third quarter of 2013. At the end of 2013, 43.4 percent of these modifications were current or paid off. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) | CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS: Headquarters is located in Washington, D.C., with four district offices located in New York City, Chicago, Dallas, and Denver. There are 48 additional field offices throughout the United States, and a London office to supervise the international activities of national banks 45.9 PERCENT 42.6 PERCENT 34 PERCENT 3,388,010 MORTGAGES 43 PERCENT