Links in “Credit Unions”

The two chairs of the House Financial Services Subcommittee are urging the CFPB to establish a 5-month “hold harmless” period for those working to comply with the new combined TILA/RESPA disclosure requirements that are effective August 1, 2015.  The chairs believe this additional 5-month period will allow all parties time to address any compliance issues that may arise. [3/31/15]

The CFPB announced that it is pursuing enforcement action against another debt collector for using intimidation tactics. The CFPB alleges that National Corrective Group threatened consumers with jail time for bouncing checks and charged consumers hundreds of extra dollars in fees supposedly to avoid prosecution. [3/31/15]

If you are a state-chartered credit union and are uncertain about what sources of income could be considered unrelated business income and subject to federal tax, this webinar could clear up those questions in your mind. The webinar will be held on April 8^th at 2:00 P.M. EST and will be conducted by two IRS tax law specialists. [3/30/15]

Given the significant cost to credit unions for last year’s major data breaches, it is shocking to see that the costs to three of the major retailers was less than 1.0% of their gross annual sales.  In fact, the cost to Home Depot for its breach was only .01% of its total annual sales. [3/30/15]

A bill introduced by Senator Mike Crapo would amend the Economic Growth and Regulatory Paperwork Reduction Act, to require all NCUA, CFPB, and Dodd-Frank rules be reviewed every 10 years, and that any determined to be unnecessary, outdated, or overly burdensome be eliminated. [3/30/15]

With PINless PIN technology merchants can now require consumers to process debit card transactions as debit transactions rather than giving them the option to process the transaction as a credit transaction, which would require a signature.  This could reduce income to credit unions as a result of the lower debit card interchange fees. [3/30/15]

At a CFPB hearing in Richmond, the credit union message stood apart from the message of other panelists, many of whom testified about the need for payday lending services.  Stan Leicester of Bayport CU testified that credit unions have two primary objectives; to get members off of the weekly payday lending cycle and to help them improve their credit scores. [3/27/15]

If your marketing focus is still branch-centric, you may want to reconsider that strategy. A recent study shows that 70% of likely checking account applicants would prefer to open their accounts by submitting a digital application. [3/27/15]

The House Financial Services Committee has approved nine bills that offer regulatory relief to financial institutions. The bills that will now be brought up for a vote on the House floor address a variety of issues from the elimination of annual privacy notices (when no changes have occurred) to a modification of the TILA definition of “points and fees.” [3/27/15]

NCUA Chair Debbie Matz told NAFCU CEO Dan Berger that the agency is looking for credit unions to exhibit reasonable and  good faith efforts to comply with the new TILA/RESPA combined disclosures that are effective August 1^st.  She added that the agency understands that credit unions may need time to do more extensive testing once their TILA/RESPA disclosure systems become fully operational. [3/27/15]