Title: The Bureau and the Burdens: ABA's Compliance Experts Look at the Challenges Ahead from CFPB
Abstract: [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] For many bankers, and especially those whose banks are not directly examined by it, the Financial Protection Bureau has been a somewhat monolithic, symbolic organization-embodying all that they dislike about the Dodd-Frank Act, yet still something of an abstraction because it is so new. For Richard Riese, senior vice-president, and his staff at the ABA Center for Regulatory Compliance, CFPB is no abstraction. These compliance experts regularly work, in meticulous detail, with staffers at the fledgling regulator, especially as the regulators draft and revise the many regulations the bureau has taken over, or is creating from scratch. center, which comes under Wayne Abernathy, executive vice-president, financial institutions policy and regulatory affairs, is among several ABA groups that work with CFPB. ABA BJ recently interviewed center experts in a special roundtable. Riese, Abernathy, and the others have seen evolution at CFPB, as staff settles into the job, early arrivals depart, and all hands grow more knowledgeable, one way or another, about the companies they regulate. The relationship with the industry has improved, says Nessa Feddis, vice-president and senior counsel. The attitude there has improved. bureau has lots of good people working over there, and some imaginative people who bring on a fresh look at some things. CFPB remains a very political and public relations-driven organization, Feddis points out, but staff increasingly is not simply taking the input of consumerists as gospel: There were a couple of occasions when they did that, but they seem to be moving away from it. Making banking's points ABA staff has worked hard to put industry viewpoints before CFPB, and so too have bankers. Last year ABA Chairman Matt Williams invited CFPB's David Silberman to come out to his small Nebraska bank to see how a community bank operated and how it handled overdraft services. Later in the year Silberman, now CFPB associate director, did so. ABA Chief Operating Officer Mike Hunter says this experiment will be the basis of future banker interactions with regulators. Such visits need to be smart with respect to showing how things work within a bank, and how the bank is responsive to the needs and interest of the customer, Hunter notes. Interaction with the industry, and the benefits of same, have not necessarily come willingly for CFPB staffers, but this is a work in progress. Riese points to the development of the remittance rule--governing international cash transfers--as an example of how CFPB is evolving. They were bound and determined to dig in their heels and stick to their implementation date, which they saw as set in concrete, says Riese. Working with staffers such as Rob Rowe, vice-president and senior counsel, Riese says ABA a number of jackhammer meetings where we kept going back, for more meetings, and writing more letters, to keep pressing our points. association had to prove itself, says Riese, and brought in data that illustrated that the original final rule was virtually unworkable for banks. Remittances aren't terribly profitable, and rather than struggle to comply, banks planned to quit the business. ABA Center's Steven Kenneally, vice-president, found bureau staff dismissive of banking's position nearly to the end. They reversed themselves when it finally became clear that they were going to get embarrassed because so many banks were going to stop offering the service. Perhaps, as Feddis says, what banking faces is a process where an organization that knows relatively little about how banks function will gradually build respect for and gain understanding from one that does. Rowe believes the remittance rule discussions taught the bureau something key for the future: Consumer groups may be asking for things that are not in the best interests of consumers. …
Publication Year: 2013
Publication Date: 2013-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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