Interesting Reads

February’s Scientific American had an article titled Why Don’t People Manage Debt Better. This is a must read for Marketing folks. Mind you, this is not a compliance article but a discussion on how people do not effectively manage debt. The article provides a summary of experiments the researchers ran on the interpretation of advertisements and which ads would invoke … Read More

Proposed Incentive-Based Compensation Arrangements

Section 956 of the Dodd-Frank Act requires the banking agencies (NCUA, FDIC, Federal Reserve System, Federal Housing Finance Agency, OCC, and the SEC) to jointly prescribe regulations or guidelines to prohibit incentive-based payment arrangements that the agencies determine to encourage inappropriate risks by providing excessive compensation or that could lead to material financial loss. Section 956 also requires that the … Read More

Emergency Communications System

The DCU encourages credit unions to register and participate in the Emergency Communication System (ECS) that the Federal Reserve provides. Bulletin B-16-05 provides that the ECS is a free service provided by the Federal Reserve that will enable DFI to communicate with your financial institution in the event of a natural or man-made disaster, or events that dramatically affect the … 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

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

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

No-Action Letters

The CFPB finalized a policy that aims to promote innovation in the financial services marketplace. Generally, the policy establishes a process for companies to apply for a “no-action letter” from the Bureau. The no-action letter essentially indicates that the Bureau has no present intention to recommend or initiate any enforcement or supervisory action with respect to the company’s product or … Read More

Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015

On December 18, 2015, Congress passed and President Obama signed into law the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015, which is designed to increase cybersecurity information sharing between the private sector and the Federal Government. The Act provides various protections to non-federal entities that share cyber threat indicators or defensive measures with the Federal Government. DHS’s Automated Indicator Sharing (AIS) … Read More

More BSA on the way?

In January, the Government Accountability Office released a report, in response to Congress’ request, titled Internal Remittances – Money Laundering Risks and Views on Enhanced Customer Verification and Recordkeeping Requirements. This was initiated from a 2015 Senate bill, the Remittance Status Verification Act of 2015.  While the Act did not proceed further, it would have required remittance transfer providers (including credit unions) to, before … Read More