Compliance Blog

Aug 05, 2011

Uncertainty; Reg Alerts and Finals; College Football

Written by Steve Van Beek

The CFPB now has authority for the consumer laws and regulations.  This means they are the agency with authority to interpret Regulation Z; the Fair Credit Reporting Act; the SAFE Act regulations; Regulation B; Regulation E; Truth in Savings regulations and the list goes on.  

Unfortunately, this is leaving financial institutions with a lot of uncertainty.  Let's use a concrete example - the recent clarifications to the Credit CARD Act - implemented in Regulation Z. 

  • The clarifications were proposed and finalized by the Federal Reserve;
  • The CFPB took over authority for Regulation Z on July 21, 2011;
  • The clarifications become effective October 1, 2011; and
  • Credit unions below $10 billion in assets will be examined by NCUA.

So, we have one agency finalizing a regulation but authority transfers to a new agency soon after and a third agency examines institutions.  

I know the paint isn't even dry on the CFPB - but I guess I was hoping the CFPB would be providing some guidance to the industry.  Currently, their webpage is completely consumer focused with three guidance documents (none clarifying existing requirements) tucked on the very bottom of the page.   

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NAFCU's issued Regulatory Alerts on the CFPB's Disclosure of Records and Information proposal as well as NCUA's Credit Union Service Organization (CUSO) proposal.  Both can be found here.

We've also issued our Regulatory Final on NCUA's interim final rule for Remittances under 12 C.F.R. 701.30.   

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I may have missed the 100 day countdown to the wedding - but I didn't miss the 30 day countdown to college football - specifically Michigan football (YouTube) - yesterday.  This doesn't reflect my priorities, however.  I will continue to argue it is extremely difficult to track 100 days when months have different number of days.  

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My brothers and I at the 2006 Michigan-Wisconsin game.

If you are not a Michigan fan - you are still welcome at the Big House.  You just might not have as good of seats (and you will be a bit outnumbered).

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