Submission Requirements for Credit Card Issuers

Last year the CFPB suspended the requirement to submit credit card agreements to the Bureau.  This temporary suspension is expiring at the end of April, and credit unions that have more than 10,000 credit card accounts will need to begin submitting their agreements quarterly, with the first due to the Bureau on or before May 2, 2016. The submittal suspension … Read More

Operations in Rural Areas Under the Truth in Lending Act (Regulation Z); Interim Final Rule

In response to the Helping Expand Lending Practices in Rural Communities (HELP) Act, the CFPB issued an Interim Final Rule, which expands eligibility for the special provisions allowing balloon-payment qualified mortgages and balloon-payment high-cost mortgages and for the escrow exemption. Pursuant to the Interim Final Rule, a small creditor is no longer required to extend more than 50 percent of … Read More

CFPB’s Advisory and Report for Financial Institutions on Preventing Elder Financial Abuse

The Advisory and Report contains recommendations for banks and credit unions to use to aid in preventing, recognizing, reporting, and responding to financial exploitation of older Americans.  The recommendations are voluntary, and do not represent any new requirements. The Advisory and Report contains recommendations for banks and credit unions to use to aid in preventing, recognizing, reporting, and responding to … Read More

Interagency Guidance to Issuing Banks on Applying Customer Identification Program Requirements to Holders of Prepaid Cards

Functionalities that make prepaid cards attractive to consumers also pose risks for financial institutions that issue prepaid cards and process prepaid card transactions. For example, easy access to prepaid cards, the ability to use them anonymously, and the potential for relatively high volumes of funds to flow through pooled prepaid access accounts, make prepaid cards potentially vulnerable to criminal abuse. … Read More

Whistleblower Protection

The Department of Labor Issued its Final Rule Regarding Procedures for Handling Employee Retaliation Complaints under the Employee Protection Provision of the Consumer Financial Protection Act A covered person (offers or provides consumer financial products or services) cannot retaliate against an employee for: (1) reporting to a governmental authority or law agency information that the employee believes is a violation … Read More

Bank Tellers Increasingly Involved in Identity Theft

Reprinted from ABCnews (03/16/16): Identity theft is a growing problem across the nation, and Manhattan’s top district attorney says that bank tellers are increasingly involved, adding that his office prosecutes one case per month involving tellers. The tellers in question are part of larger identity theft rings, District Attorney Cyrus Vance said in a recent interview with ABC News’ Rebecca … Read More

Effective September 23, 2016, stale-dated ACH entries will result in a fee

Reprinted from Fedflash Effective September 23, 2016, with Phase 1 implementation of the Same Day ACH Rules change, a current-day or stale-day date in the effective entry date field of a credit entry will trigger same-day processing (provided the other requirements are also met). Every Automated Clearing House (ACH) network participant should be aware of the Same Day Entry Fee … Read More

Final Member Business Loan Rule

The Final MBL Rule provides credit unions making business loans with greater flexibility and more autonomy, shifting the rule’s focus from the current prescriptive approach to a more principles-based methodology that emphasizes sound risk management practices for business lending. The final Rule eliminates most of the prescriptive lending limits and their corresponding waiver provisions. The also distinguishes the policy and … Read More

Complying with Recent Changes to the Military Lending Act

NCUA released Regulatory Alert 16-RA-04 providing guidance on complying with the changes to the Military Lending Act requirements. The guidance, Complying with Recent Changes to the Military Lending Act Regulation, provides a good overview of the changes, and the steps that the credit union will have to take. Along with an overview of the changes, the guidance includes how to … Read More

BSA Violations

FinCEN’s penalty assessment against Gibraltar Private Bank reads like a Stephen King novel for BSA compliance officers. The ongoing deficiencies and either the willful blindness or ignorance by Gibraltar caused me heartburn just reading the assessment report. Gilbraltar’s issues have been ongoing since at least 2010, when the OCC first warned Gibraltar of its BSA deficiencies. A Consent order was … Read More