(Nov. 24, 2021) Fair lending and consumer compliance are on the agenda for a Dec. 1 webinar hosted by NCUA, the agency said this week. Registration for the 3 p.m. ET event, to run about an hour, is now open. Topics include 2022 consumer compliance exam scope activities, fair lending updates, 2021 consumer compliance exam scope activities, and regulatory updates, including the rule on capitalizing unpaid interest and the 2021 COVID-19 temporary mortgage servicing rule … Speaking of educational sessions: Don’t forget the Dec. 9 (at 2 p.m. ET) NASCUS 101 — a free, short webinar where participants learn from the NASCUS team how to make the most of an association membership. Among the topics addressed: What NASCUS is, how NASCUS contributes to the entire credit union industry, how to engage in the regulatory and legislative processes, collaboration with peers, committee and working group involvement, customized communications and more. The webinar is open to all members and prospective members. While it is free to participate, registration is required … Federal banking agencies Tuesday released summaries of their plans to provide “greater clarity” through next year on whether certain crypto-asset-related activities conducted by banks are legally permissible and “related expectations for safety and soundness, consumer protection, and compliance with existing law and regulations.” According to the agencies, the emerging crypto-asset sector “presents potential opportunities and risks to banking organizations, their customers, and the overall financial system” … Here’s to a happy and safe Thanksgiving holiday for all!

LINKS:

Registration: NCUA 2021 Consumer compliance and fair lending regulatory update

Joint Statement on Crypto-Asset Policy Sprint Initiative and Next Steps (PDF)

(June 11, 2021) Changes made during its reorganization have led to a loss of fair lending expertise at the CFPB, and other actions taken by the agency could lead to reduced transparency and difficulty in assessing progress toward fair lending goals, according to a report issued by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) this week.

GAO said that a reorganization by the bureau in 2018 shuffled its fair lending activities, resulting in expertise being reallocated throughout the agency. The congressional watchdog stated that, when the agency conducted the reorganization three years ago, it moved its fair lending office from the supervision, enforcement and fair lending division to the office of former Director Kathleen Kraninger reallocating some of the fair lending office’s responsibilities along the way.

More specifically, GAO said those key changes in the 2018 reshuffling were:

Responsibility was moved from specialist attorneys in the fair lending office to generalist attorneys in its enforcement office.
Subject matter expertise and exam support was shifted from dedicated fair lending office supervision staff to a new team in the office of supervision policy.
Responsibility for selecting institutions for fair lending exams and identifying enforcement priorities was reassigned from the fair lending office to supervision offices and the office of enforcement at the bureau.

“As CFPB planned and implemented the reorganization, it did not substantially incorporate key practices for agency reform efforts GAO identified in prior work—such as using employee input for planning or monitoring implementation progress and outcomes,” the congressional watchdog stated.

The GAO also said that it identified “challenges related to the reorganization” that included loss of fair lending expertise and specialized data analysts. The agency indicated those losses may have “contributed to a decline in enforcement activity in 2018.”

In any event, the report stated, the bureau has not assessed how well the reorganization met its own goals or how it affected fair lending supervision and enforcement efforts.

LINK:
Fair Lending: CFPB Needs to Assess the Impact of Recent Changes to Its Fair Lending Activities