FTC Rescinds Regulations Transferred to CFPB; NCUA to Follow Soon?

Written by Steve Van Beek

FTC Rescinds Rules.  Last week, the Federal Trade Commission rescinded regulations that transferred over to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau according to Dodd-Frank.  The FTC's regulations - including the publishing in the Electronic Code of Federal Regulations - will no longer be available and entities need to be sure to look to the CFPB's republished regulations.

The FTC's rescission notice indicated they would be removing the rules and including cross-references to the CFPB's regulations.  For example, 16 CFR 321.1 has been revised to:

"Cross-Reference:  The rules formally at 16 CFR 321 have been republished by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau at 12 CFR 1014, "Mortgage Acts and Practices Advertising (Regulation N)."

I'm usually not a fan of cross-references, but this one makes a lot of sense.  In the future, anyone trying to find the rules that used to be located in 16 CFR 321 will be directed to the CFPB's rules in 12 CFR 1014.

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NCUA Following Soon?  It is expected that NCUA will take a similar action in the future and formally rescind the regulations they lost due to Dodd-Frank.  Prior to this occurring, it might be a good business practice to make a copy of the soon-to-be rescinded regulations to ensure your credit union has a copy of the regulations in effect in the past in the case of a member complaint, exam issue or lawsuit.  

Note:  The FTC's rescission was made effective immediately after publishing in the Federal Register.  As of this morning, the old, FTC regulations can no longer be found in the Electronic Code of Federal Regulations.    

Comments

[Kennyb]

The GPO publishes the Code of Federal Regulations both in annual versions and up-to-date electronic version (ECFR). The annual version currently provides access to the regulations in the CFR for the last 15 years back to 1996 in pdf, text and xml formats so the archived versions of prior regulations are readily available. http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/browse/collectionCfr.action?collectionCode=CFR

[Steve Van Beek]

Kennyb,

Thanks for this - we'll blog on this tomorrow and make sure everyone has the 2011 version of the NCUA rules that moved to the CFPB. Cheers, Steve

[DJ]

Why is CFPB section missing in FDsys? Please reference: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/browse/collectionCfr.action?collectionCode=CFR&searchPath=Title+12%2FChapter+II&oldPath=Title+12%2FChapter+II%2FSubchapter+A&isCollapsed=false&selectedYearFrom=2011&ycord=734
I still go to ECFR to find Chapter X, CFPB -
http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-idx?sid=fa6fa750c6a4128404c87992b439a00f&c=ecfr&tpl=/ecfrbrowse/Title12/12tab_02.tpl
What am I missing?

[Steve Van Beek]

Dianna,
My guess is the FDsys didn't include the CFPB in their 2011 update because the CFPB's republished rules had just been released and became effective December 30, 2011.

You are correct that the most up-to-date CFPB regulations are found in the e-CFR. This will be even more important after NCUA and the Federal Reserve rescind their rules.

[Cheryl]

Can you please explain something to me, doesn't "rescind" mean to revoke, take back, repeal, annul, reverse, etc.? Is this what the FTC is doing? We are having a debate in our shop. Thank you.

[Steve Van Beek]

Cheryl,
Yes - the FTC is removing their regulations because they lost authority over these regulations on July 21, 2011. Because they do not have authority over the Regs (the CFPB does), they need to rescind their regulations.

The requirements are still around and are enforceable, but they are under the CFPB's rulemaking authority.

[Cheryl]

Steve, I understand that, but what I am asking is that if the FTC is "rescinding" their rules, doesn't that mean that they are 'taking them back' FROM the CFPB? The use of the word "rescind" doesn't make sense here.
I need to explain this to management, they just don't get it.

[Steve Van Beek]

Cheryl,

No, the FTC's action to remove their regulations doesn't impact the CFPB's rules. The FTC is rescinding (or removing) their regulations from the public record. The FTC no longer has authority over these regulations so they must "rescind" their regulations to prevent having two sets of regulations (one FTC and one CFPB).

In other words, the FTC originally promulgated these regulations and now they are rescinding them. Their rescission (or take back) is from the public record and not from the CFPB.

[DJ]

Rather than have ?3500 credit unions save a copy - - Any chance NAFCU could make a copy of "soon to be rescinded regulations" and allow NAFCU members access through the library (or some other means. . . ) if we find it necessary to reference in the future? :)

[JiJi]

DJ,

NAFCU has provided links to PDFs of the NCUA rules already (see April 18 blog post) and intends to do the Fed's rules in a future blog post as well.

The Government Printing Office (GPO) retains a copy of each year's CFR in PDF or XML format, so there is no need to print all of the soon to be rescinded regulations. This was information that was shared with us after the posting of this blog.

[DJ]

Exactly as I had expected. Thank you!