Compliance Blog

Written by Steve Van Beek

Just a quick update on a few issues you might have seen in the news.

ATM Fee Disclosures.  NAFCU, CUNA, the ABA and other trade associations have joined together to call for an amendment to the Electronic Funds Transfer Act to end the "ATM Fee Disclosure" class action lawsuits.  You can read more on this issue in the NAFCU Today.  The letter sent to the Hill is available here.  

CFPB and Privileged Information.  NAFCU also sent a letter to the Hill urging support of a bill that would change the law to ensure information shared with the CFPB would remain confidential.  The law currently provides this protection for information shared with NCUA.  More from the NAFCU Today here and here.

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Footnotes.  The NAFCU Compliance Team is currently updating NAFCU's Credit Union Compliance GPS with new information, updated links and citations.  I felt a duty to share with the blog readers this footnote from the Regulation Z chapter.

Here is the text:

"Disclosures included in a footnote⁶ are not considered 'in a prominent location.'"

The footnote material is here....and very true:

"6 You read this footnote because you are a compliance officer and required to follow very detailed laws and regulations. Regulators are starting to disallow disclosures in footnotes through the increased use of “clear and conspicuous” requirements. This trend will most likely continue under the CFPB."

The "prominent location" reference in this situation comes from the promotional rate and fee disclosures from Reg Z's open-end advertising requirements in 12 C.F.R. 1026.16(g).  Of course, the restriction on using footnotes to provide the required disclosures is included in the official staff commentary!! 

What is the saying?  Do as I say……