Compliance Blog

Written by Steve Van Beek

Last week, the CFPB issued a proposed rule to define "larger participants" in two consumer financial services markets.  The proposal targets the debt collection and consumer reporting markets.  Earlier this year, the CFPB issued a Notice and Request for Comment on how best to define "larger participants" and on which markets to focus on.

The Notice and Request for Comment was issued when the CFPB did not have a Director.  Without a Director, the CFPB had been unable to regulate nonbank institutions - including defining "larger participants."  Now that the CFPB has a Director, it can move forward with its NonBank Supervision Program.  

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Dodd-Frank gave the CFPB authority to supervise any nonbank entity in three markets: (1) mortgage origination and servicing; (2) payday lending; and (3) private education lending.  The CFPB has the ability to supervise entities operating in these markets regardless of their size.

For other consumer markets, the CFPB must define "larger participants" and their recent proposed rule for the debt collection and credit reporting markets was their first steps in that direction.

The CFPB's Notice and Request for Comment indicating the CFPB was also going to be looking at the following consumer financial services markets:

• Consumer Credit and Related Activities;
• Money Transmitting, Check Cashing, and Related Activities;
• Prepaid Cards; and
• Debt Relief Services.

The CFPB still has the ability to define "larger participants" in these markets in the future.  The CFPB would need to propose a separate proposed rule to cover these markets (or add new markets) in the nonbank supervision process.

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March NAFCU Webcasts.  NAFCU has a pair of webcasts coming up in March that might be of interest.  Remember, NAFCU's webcasts are open to everyone.  They are also available for viewing for a year after the original live webcast.  Thus, if you and your colleagues can't make the live webcast - you can still view the content at a later date.  This "on-demand" feature also works great for sharing the webcast with others at your credit union who could benefit from the information.

• Wednesday, March 7, 2012:  Preparing for the Heightened Scrutiny of CUSOs featuring Katherine Weber of The Weber Law Firm.
• Thursday, March 15, 2012:  Powers of Attorney and Subpoenas - The Risks, Abuses and Potential Liabilities of Credit Unions featuring Andy Keeney of Kaufman & Canoles. 

The full listing of NAFCU's live and on-demand webcasts can be found here.  Additionally, we are always looking for webcast ideas that would be useful to credit unions.  If you have ideas or suggestions, please email us at compliance@nafcu.org.