NAFCU Compliance Blog

June NCUA Report - Plain Writing; June Economic Update

Written by Steve Van Beek

NCUA recently released their June 2012 NCUA Report.  This month's issue includes the following content:

• Chairman Matz's Corner: Effective Regulation Requires Plain Writing
• Board Actions: NCUA Finalizes Two Regulatory Relief Measures
• Board Perspective: The Intersection of Innovation and Regulation
• Board Perspective: Consistency/Standardization
• Credit Union Assets Top $1 Trillion
• Seven Steps to Finding a Credit Union CEO
• Free NCUA Training Events

I recommend reviewing the NCUA Report each month - and passing along relevant articles to your colleagues.  

Plain Writing.  I've written about Plain Writing a couple of times in the past - most recently when discussing the Plain Writing Act.  In that April 30th blog post, I jumped up on my soapbox with the hopes that NCUA (and the CFPB) would take Plain Writing seriously - including writing regulations clearly - as one step toward easing the constant regulatory burden on credit unions.

"Soap Box  Credit unions need to make these efforts in their communications with their members.  Why shouldn't the federal agencies have to at least take efforts to do the same?  The more clear and straightforward the requirements the higher the compliance rates and the greater the consumer/member protection.  

Hopefully the CFPB and NCUA start to grasp this concept.  It just isn't possible for credit unions - of any size - to read and translate every piece of information from the regulatory agencies (including the regulations themselves) from *regulator speak* to plain English."

Chairman Matz's article indicates NCUA is looking at Plain Writing.  But, it appears NCUA's focus is only on future information issued from NCUA.  This approach won't ease the burden caused by Piles of Old Guidance.  Additionally, I surely hope NCUA will use their newfound emphasis on Plain Writing during their Annual Review of 1/3 of their Regulations in order to cut down on the continual confusion and unnecessary headaches caused by their existing regulations.

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NCUA Economic Update.  NCUA has posted their June 2012 Economic Update (YouTube.com).  This month's report looks at economic trends and indicators - and features a update on Corporate Credit Unions.  

A Whole Lot of FYIs

Written By JiJi Bahhur, Regulatory Compliance Counsel

 

I thought I’d keep it simple today with a couple…okay, a whole lot of…FYIs that you may (or may not) find interesting.

  

CFPB “Sweepstakes” Scam

The CFPB has issued a notice stating that if you receive a call from the “CFPB” in regards to a “sweepstakes” offer, it is a scam. Be careful not to provide any personal, consumer, or commercial information.

 

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FinCEN SAR Activity Review – By The Numbers Issue 17

FinCEN has released its seventeenth issue of The SAR Activity Review – By the Numbers (BTN). The report is only published once a year and provides numerical data on SAR filings from the last 12 months. It is available here.

 

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NCUA’s Office of Minority and Women Inclusion

In April, NCUA filed its first report to Congress on its Office of Minority and Women Inclusion (OMWI) and is expected to issue a proposal for comment in the future on standards for assessing credit unions' diversity policies. NAFCU wrote a letter to NCUA addressing OMWI’s assessment of credit unions’ diversity policy. March 29, 2012 - OMWI Assessment of CU's Diversity Practices.

 

NCUA’s OMWI was created in accordance with the Dodd-Frank Act. Its focus is diversity, civil rights and the promotion of minority and women hiring and contracting practices throughout the credit union industry. 

 

NCUA’s 2011 annual report notes actions taken thus far toward developing standards for assessing the diversity policies and practices of entities it regulates. It also looks at steps taken within the agency to promote diversity in its own hiring and procurement practices.

 

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NCUA’s Plain Writing Act.

If you remember from Steve’s blog post on April 30^th, we were waiting to see NCUA’s Annual Report on the Plain Writing Act. That report is now available on NCUA’s webpage dedicated to the Plain Writing Act.

 

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I could keep going, but I think I’ll stop right there for now. Okay, wait…one more...FYI: I’m having twins (a boy and a girl)!

 

 

Plain Writing Act of 2010; NAFCU Blog Search

Written by Steve Van Beek

Usually, the laws we discuss on the blog are ones that cause additional headaches and issues for credit union compliance officers.  Today we wanted to focus on a law that is intended to ease the confusion surrounding the laws, regulations and guidance impacting credit unions.  I'm not sure of a great mechanism to enforce this law but at least it is a step in the right direction.

Plain Writing Act of 2010.  On October 13, 2010, President Obama signed into law the Plain Writing Act.  In short, the law requires federal agencies to use clear, concise information when communicating with the public to ease understanding of the numerous regulations pumped out from Washington on a daily basis.  Stop laughing.

One of the requirements of the law is that federal agencies - including NCUA and the CFPB - need to maintain Plain Writing Act webpages on their websites as well as file annual reports with Congress (the first annual report was due April 13, 2012).    

• The CFPB's Plain Writing Act webpage is here and their April 13, 2012 report is here.
• NCUA's Plain Writing Act webpage is here and their April 13, 2012 report is not available yet (at least it hasn't been posted on their website as of this morning).    

Not so Fast.  Now, you may be very excited to find out that the federal agencies now have a legal requirement to make their regulations clear and straightforward.  Unfortunately, this is the real word so there are exceptions.  The agencies need to use Plain Writing for "covered documents."  The definition of "covered documents" specifically excludes regulations.  

While this exception might make sense for very, very technical regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency, for example, it shouldn't give the NCUA and the CFPB free rein to continue to blast out pages and pages of completely indecipherable regulatory requirements without making their best efforts to ensure the information is readable.  

Soap Box  Credit unions need to make these efforts in their communications with their members.  Why shouldn't the federal agencies have to at least take efforts to do the same?  The more clear and straightforward the requirements the higher the compliance rates and the greater the consumer/member protection.  

Hopefully the CFPB and NCUA start to grasp this concept.  It just isn't possible for credit unions - of any size - to read and translate every piece of information from the regulatory agencies (including the regulations themselves) from *regulator speak* to plain English.

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Blog Search Bar.  On Friday, we announced the new Blog Search Bar.  The post includes the process for conducting a search and sorting your results - by either "best match" or "most recent."  

To use the search bar, go to the main NAFCU Compliance Blog page and look to the upper left-hand side.  We accidently put the right-hand side in the initial blog last Friday and, well, you can tell our readers are compliance officers as we were quickly informed of our mistake.  

If you didn't try the search bar on Friday, give it a try today (more detailed instructions here).  We hope it cuts down on some of the frustration of tracking down an old blog post or other information.