By: Bill Elliott, Senior Consultant and Manager of Compliance
We usually try to use this space to share information that will help you prepare for what has been released, and for what will be required in the coming months. However, at this writing we find ourselves in a unique position; almost nothing (at least in the near term) is changing is the world of compliance. That does not mean that we can relax too much, just that we have a little time to catch up and get ready for the next round of changes.
Here is a sampling of where we are today:
- Expedited Funds Availability (Regulation CC) Update: The CFPB promised it for late last fall, but have not yet released it. (Note: this is maybe their fifth release date.) They have been working on it for about 6 years.
- Privacy (Regulation P) Update: This was also promised for last fall, but it has not yet appeared. In the interim, the prudential regulators have stated that banks that do not share (and therefore have no opt out) can follow the new privacy law. This means no annual privacy notice mailings of any kind, unless your privacy notice has to change. If you do change your notice and/or start to share, you will have to mail the new notice to all customers annually, so you may want to think about the mailing expense before you make any changes that would require the annual mailing.
- Prepaid Cards Update: The new prepaid card rule has been delayed for six months (April 2018) to allow for the changes that will essentially turn all prepaid cards that have the ability to be reloaded into an “account.” They will then have rights similar to an account holder; they can ask for transaction histories, dispute items, etc. This is probably going to make these cards more expensive and therefore less attractive to your customers, and may end up not being a profitable item for many banks.
- TRID Update: They have published a proposal, but we will have to wait to see what the final rule looks like. It will be a number of months at least before anything is finalized on this subject.
- Home Mortgage Disclosure Act Update: The major item on the compliance agenda for 2017 is the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act. Management needs to assure that staff training occurs – and soon. We created a manual for our live seminars that runs 210 pages. We also created a listing of every possible code that might be needed, and that runs 33 pages in Excel. So this will not be an easy transition, and waiting until December to think about it does not seem like a good idea. If you do not have an LEI number and you are a HMDA bank, you should get it very soon. It will be required for 2018. We should also mention that the CFPB published a 150-page update with changes and corrections to the HMDA rule. These changes should be final by the first of the year.
Stay Tuned
We will continue to use the newsletter to keep you informed as the CFPB finally publishes updates and new regulations. But in the near term, the staff can work on absorbing what already has been issued. If we can help in any way, please feel free to call Karen Clower at 330.422.3444 for assistance. She can also be reached at [email protected].
