All in Compliance Management

Interagency Statement on Sharing of BSA/AML Resources Among Financial Insittutions

Adam Witmer
Regulatory Update, BSA, Compliance Management

On October 3, 2018, the main federal regulators, along with FinCEN, released a statement regarding instances in which banks and credit unions may decide to enter into collaborative arrangements to share resources to manage their Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and anti-money laundering (AML) obligations more efficiently and effectively.  While this guidance may not be beneficial for a majority of financial institutions, this may be beneficial for very small institutions with a low-risk profile and less-complex structures, or those institutions who are owned by the same organization.

Federal Reserve Webinar on Complaint Management

Adam Witmer
Compliance Management

On August 29, 2018, the Federal Reserve hosted a webinar regarding focused on the topic of complaint management titled “Complaints as a Supervisory and Risk Management Tool.”  In this webinar, the Federal Reserve provided an overview of their complaint investigation process and provided an overview of what they look for when investigating complaints.  While this webinar didn’t provide significantly new information, there were a few takeaways from this training, including some guidance on how to manage complaints on social media.

Compliance Considerations for CD Secured Loans

Adam Witmer
Compliance Management, BSA, Fair Lending, CRA, Regulation Z

Compliance requirements for CD secured loans are not typically a huge topic of discussion for compliance seminar speakers or article authors.  That said, one of our members suggested this topic (you know who you are!), and I think it is a great topic to write on from the perspective of CD secured loans, rather than just bringing up these loans when discussing applicable regulations (which is usually the way it happens). The truth is that most financial institutions (and regulators) just…

Excessive Obligations vs Insufficient Income

Adam Witmer
Adverse Action, Compliance Management, Regulation B

Over the years, I have seen many financial institutions struggle with the adverse action notice requirements under Regulation B, especially in regards to what denial reasons should be listed on the adverse action notice.  This is particularly true when an applicant is denied for a reason relating to income and the applicant’s debt-to-income (DTI) ratio as most adverse action notice vendors provide two similar, but different, options relating to income: excessive obligations in relation to income and insufficient income for the amount of credit requested.  

Compliance Management Systems

Compliance Management Systems

Adam Witmer
Compliance Management

Adam talks about the core elements needed in a compliance management system including board of director oversight and the sub-elements of a compliance program.  This video outlines the expectations of a CMS as outlined by the CFPB and other regulatory agencies.  A sister article to this video can be found here.

Regulation D Excessive Transaction Monitoring

Adam Witmer
Regulation D, Compliance Management

Regulation D sets transaction limitations on savings accounts where a customer is not permitted to make more than 6 restricted transaction from the account during the statement cycle (or calendar month).  If a customer repeatedly makes excessive withdrawals, Regulation D, by definition, changes the account type from a savings account to a transaction account. The result is that a converted account would be incorrectly reported on the Call report by the financial institution.  Therefore, Regulation D requires financial institutions to monitor restricted transactions and to take action if a consumer exceeds the maximum number of transactions permitted on a savings account.

Assessing Fair Lending Risk

Adam Witmer
Fair Lending, Compliance Management

Fair lending is one of the hottest topics in regulatory compliance.  As the dust has settled from TRID and the examiners haven’t quite focused their full efforts on the new HMDA rules, fair lending scrutiny is as intense as it ever has been.  In fact, it always has been a hot topic and will always be one.  One trend new trend that I have been seeing, however, is a demand for community banks and credit unions to conduct a fair lending risk assessment.  

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