First National Bank of Council Bluffs, Iowa v. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency

956 F.2d 1456, 1992 U.S. App. LEXIS 2103, 1992 WL 27640
CourtCourt of Appeals for the First Circuit
DecidedFebruary 19, 1992
Docket91-2289
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 956 F.2d 1456 (First National Bank of Council Bluffs, Iowa v. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the First Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
First National Bank of Council Bluffs, Iowa v. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, 956 F.2d 1456, 1992 U.S. App. LEXIS 2103, 1992 WL 27640 (1st Cir. 1992).

Opinion

FRIEDMAN, Senior Circuit Judge.

This petition to review challenges the decision of the Comptroller of the Currency *1458 (Comptroller) (1) that the petitioner, First National Bank of Council Bluffs (Bank), violated the Truth in Lending Act (Act or TILA), 15 U.S.C. § 1601 et seq. (1988 & Supp. I 1989), and the implementing Regulation Z of the Federal Reserve Board (Board or FRB), 12 C.F.R. Part 226 (1987), by failure to disclose certain information to borrowers and (2) requiring the Bank to make restitution to its borrowers for those violations. We uphold the Comptroller’s determination of violation, vacate in part and reverse in part the relief he ordered, and remand the case to the Comptroller for further proceedings.

I

A. The facts were stipulated.

1. In 1986, the Bank began offering discounted variable interest rate consumer installment loans. Those were loans for which the initial rate for the first year was below the market rate and the rate for the remainder of the loan was at the going rate, which varied from time to time. Between June 1986 and June 1988, the Bank made 691 such loans, on which the discounted “teaser” rate for the first year ranged from 7.9 to 9.9 percent, which was below the Bank’s regular consumer loan rates.

The Act requires a financial institution to disclose to borrowers the “annual percentage rate” (APR). 15 U.S.C. § 1638(a)(4). Regulation Z, which the Board promulgated pursuant to its statutory authority to issue regulations under the Act specifying how the annual percentage rate is to be determined, 15 U.S.C. § 1606(a), states that for variable interest rate loans, the financial institution must disclose: “(i) The circumstances under which the rate may increase. (ii) Any limitations on the increase, (iii) The effect of an increase, (iv) An example of the payment terms that would result from an increase.” 12 C.F.R. § 226.-18(f).

The Board publishes an official staff commentary, commonly known as the “Commentary,” which explains and interprets the Act and Regulation Z. See 12 C.F.R. Part 226, Supp. I, Introduction. The Commentary states that in making discounted variable interest rate consumer loans, the disclosure “should reflect a composite annual percentage rate based on the initial rate for as long as it is charged and, for the remainder of the term, the rate that would have been applied using the index or formula at the time of consummation.” Id. at Comment 18-f, II8. In other words, for those loans, the proper disclosure was not the discounted rate for the first year, but a composite rate that reflected both the discounted rate and the normally higher rate that the lender charged for such loans at the time the loan was made, calculated for the balance of the loan term after the period for which the discounted rate applied.

On the 691 discounted variable interest loans the Bank made between June 1986 and June 1988, the Bank disclosed the discounted rate for the first year and the four items of information listed above that Regulation Z prescribed. The Bank did not disclose, however, the composite rate that the Commentary required. According to the Bank, it did not disclose the latter item because its officials in charge of these loans had not seen the Commentary and were unaware of its requirements. During the same period, however, the Bank did disclose the composite rate on certain real estate loans, which were handled by a different department.

2. The Act also requires lenders to disclose the “finance charge” on the loan. 15 U.S.C. § 1638(a)(3). Between March 26th and November 6, 1987, the Bank made fifteen real estate loans on which it required the borrower to purchase private mortgage insurance. The parties stipulated that the premiums for such insurance constituted a part of the total “finance charge.” In thirteen of the fifteen real estate loans, the finance charge the Bank disclosed did not reflect the cost of the private mortgage insurance.

The Bank stated that the failure to disclose resulted from the inadvertent error of a clerk, who apparently did not know that the cost of private mortgage insurance was required to be included as a part of the finance charge. The Bank itself discovered *1459 the nondisclosure and provided the 15 borrowers with correct disclosure of the finance charge. All but two of them signed and returned to the Bank their acceptance of this disclosure.

B. The Act gives various government regulatory agencies enforcement authority over different types of financial institutions. 15 U.S.C. § 1607. The Comptroller has that authority with respect to national banks, id. at § 1607(a)(1)(A), of which the Bank is one. The Act provides that the enforcing agency “in cases where an annual percentage rate or finance charge was inaccurately disclosed, shall notify the creditor of such disclosure error and is authorized in accordance with the provisions of this subsection to require the creditor to make an adjustment to the account of the person to whom credit was extended, to assure that such person will not be required to pay a finance charge in excess of the finance charge actually disclosed or the dollar equivalent of the annual percentage rate actually disclosed, whichever is lower.” Id. at § 1607(e)(1).

After the Comptroller’s staff conducted a consumer compliance examination of the Bank, i.e., one to determine the Bank’s compliance with the Act and Regulation Z, and determined that the bank had violated the Act and Regulation Z by the foregoing nondisclosures, the staff requested the Bank to take action to correct the violations. When the Bank refused to do so, the Comptroller issued a notice of charges against the Bank, pursuant to 12 U.S.C. § 1818(b) (1988). Following full administrative proceedings, which included an evi-dentiary hearing, a decision by an administrative law judge and appeals to the Comptroller, the latter held that the Bank had violated the Act and Regulation Z by failing (1) to disclose the composite interest rate on the discounted variable interest loans and (2) to include the cost of private mortgage insurance in the finance charge.

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956 F.2d 1456, 1992 U.S. App. LEXIS 2103, 1992 WL 27640, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/first-national-bank-of-council-bluffs-iowa-v-office-of-the-comptroller-of-ca1-1992.