Compliance Blog

Nov 08, 2007
Categories: Home-Secured Lending

Flood Civil Money Penalties

Yet another bank has been hit with civil money penalties for alleged violations of the National Flood Insurance Act.  Farmers and Merchants Bank of Long Beach must pay $9,240, according to this order.    The number of flood insurance civil money penalties (CMPs) recently issued against banks is almost overwhelming.  Take a look at this website, which lists all the CMPs issued in the past few years.   (Website is organized by Bankers Online, which is a nice compliance resource.)

The Compliance Guy is unaware of any federal credit unions that have been hit with CMPs due to flood insurance compliance concerns.  That being said, when I see so many banks being hit with CMPs, it raises a red flag.  If your credit union does mortgage lending, it may be a good time to check the health of your flood insurance program.

With that in mind, here's a link to NCUA Letter to Credit Unions 04-CU-16, which addresses compliance with federal flood insurance requirements.