Compliance Blog

Written by Ricardo Piñeres, Regulatory Compliance Counsel

Fed to Host TILA/RESPA Integrated Disclosure Webinar.  As part of their “Outlook Live” series and in conjunction with their quarterly Consumer Compliance Outlook, the Federal Reserve Board of Governors will be a hosting a webinar regarding the TILA/RESPA Integrated Disclosure Rule on Tuesday, June 17.  The webinar will take place from 2:00 to 3:00 pm EDT, and will be presented by staff members from the CFPB.  This webinar will be the first of a recurring series of webinars to address the new rule, and it will provide an overview of the final rule and the new disclosures, plus address a few basic compliance questions.  Subsequent webinars will address specific implementation and interpretive questions about the rule.  Credit unions interested in viewing the webinar may register for free.

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NCUA Listening Sessions Right Around the Corner.  NCUA Chairman Debbie Matz will be beginning her listening session tour at the end of the month.  The listening sessions will provide credit unions an opportunity to engage in a dialogue with Chairman Matz, other board members, senior NCUA staff, and Regional staff regarding the agency’s initiatives and proposals.  Furthermore, the agency representatives will be taking suggestions for how they can improve their operations and regulations in order to better help credit unions.  There will be three stops on the tour, as follows:

• June 26 in Los Angeles at the Westin Bonaventure (404 South Figueroa Street, Los Angeles, CA 90071);
• July 10 in Chicago at the InterContinental Chicago Magnificent Mile (505 North Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL 60611); and
• July 17 in Alexandria, Virginia, at the Hilton Alexandria Mark Center (5000 Seminary Road, Alexandria, VA 22311)

Registration for all three stops is free, but spaces are limited.  Therefore, if your credit union is interested in attending one of the sessions, please be sure to register as soon as possible in order to assure your entrance to the event (the links above will take you to the individual registration webpages for each session).

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Free Kick.  We are now just three days away from Brasil and Croatia kicking off in Sao Paulo to begin the World Cup festivities.  Over the last two months, I have been providing previews on each of the groups in this year’s tournament.  Today, my group previews come to an end with a look at Groups C and G.  Here are links to the previous previews: Groups A & B; Groups D & E; and Groups F & H.

Group C: This group is likely the most evenly matched group out of all of the groups in this year’s tournament.  When the draw occurred back in December, I saw Colombia as the clear favorite.  Now that Radamel Falcao Garcia and Luis Amaranto Perea have been ruled out for the Colombians due to injury, I could see any of the four teams advancing to the knock-out stages.  That said, I am going with my heart on this one and I will still give a slight edge to Los Cafeteros.  They have an extremely creative midfield and attacking options that should still be able to find ways to score goals without Falcao up front.  The Colombians will need to tighten up their defensive play, though, and they will need a strong showing from their captain Mario Alberto Yepes in order to accomplish that.  The other squad that I believe is just slightly strong than the rest is the Ivory Coast.  The window for Ivory Coast’s golden generation is coming to a close, but I think that they have one good showing left in them, and after two straight appearances of being drawn into a difficult group, they finally have a group where I believe they can shine and move into the Round of 16.  Greece, as usual, will be solid defensively, but I don’t think that they can score enough goals to keep up with the top two sides in this group.  Japan is a bit of an enigma.  They have some very talented and creative players in the midfield, but their results have been quite inconsistent.  Ultimately, I believe that this group will be decided by which two teams can shake off the nerves the quickest and get off to a strong start in their opening match.

Key matches: Colombia v. Greece, June 14 (12:00 pm EDT) and Ivory Coast v. Japan, June 14 (9:00 pm EDT).

Projected finish: (1) Colombia; (2) Ivory Coast; (3) Japan; and (4) Greece

 

Group G: Let’s just dispense with the obvious – Germany is the class of this group, and I fully expect them to win the group.  The Germans are coming in with some injury and chemistry question marks, but I have no doubt that they will overcome both.  That leaves us with three teams fighting for one last spot in the knock-out round.  When the groups were drawn, I immediately thought that Portugal would be that team because Cristiano Ronaldo is just too good.  In the past week, though, there have been reports that Ronaldo’s leg injury may impact his fitness level during the tournament.  Furthermore, a witch doctor in Ghana has stated that he put a curse on Ronaldo.  Without a relatively healthy Ronaldo, I think that Portugal, the U.S., and Ghana are about even in terms of quality.  The United States will be without Landon Donovan at this World Cup, and I think that’s addition by subtraction, so I will give Jurgen Klinsmann’s squad the slight nod to join Germany in advancing out of the group.

Key matches: United States v. Ghana, June 16 (6:00 pm EDT) and United States v. Portugal, June 22 (6:00 pm EDT)

Projected finish: (1) Germany; (2) United States; (3) Portugal; (4) Ghana

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