Risky Business: Playing it Smart Regarding Unlawful Internet Gambling

Posted on January 10, 2024

The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act prohibits anyone in the business of betting or wagering from knowingly accepting payments that result from unlawful internet gambling. The statute also required the regulatory agencies to identify which payment systems could be used to facilitate prohibited transactions and require participants in those systems to have policies and procedures to identify and block prohibited transactions, or prevent or prohibit them...

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What Your Financial Institution Needs to Know About Human Trafficking

Posted on November 27, 2023

The last few years have seen billions of dollars of civil and criminal penalties levied against individuals and financial institutions for inadequacies in internal controls that have allowed high net-worth clients to engage in multinational crimes with their financial institution’s unwitting participation. This is particularly true for human trafficking and its associated crimes...

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Mortgage Fraud: An Ever-Present Danger

Posted on October 05, 2023

Though mortgage fraud is more commonly initiated by external parties rather than insiders, you can never completely rule out the risk of collusion between an external party and those involved in the various stages of the loan process. The loan officer, the underwriter, the appraiser…these roles and others are all areas of opportunity for mortgage fraud...

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​The Shield & the Sword: How the Three Lines of Defense Allow You to Avoid the Pain of Self-Reporting

Posted on September 20, 2023

Regulatory Advisory Services has long advocated when financial institutions identify regulatory violations during their monitoring processes, to self-report to their primary regulator that the violations were discovered and that, as applicable, corrective measures were undertaken to remedy those violations and prevent future violations from occurring. Self-reporting has been viewed favorably by the regulatory agencies. This recent consent order may, however, leave financial institutions questioning whether it is advisable to self-report...

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Navigating Incentive Compensation Programs- Managing the Risks of Incentive Compensation Programs

Posted on September 05, 2023

Incentive Compensation Programs (ICPs) can play a crucial role in driving the success of financial institutions. However, compensation arrangements come with inherent risks. Inadequate risk management in ICPs has led to imprudent risks taken by both C-Level management and employees, risking possible reputation and consumer harm, as well as civil and criminal penalties. By adopting prudent risk management strategies, institutions can strike a balance between incentivizing their workforce and ensuring a secure and compliant operational environment...

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CFPB Orders $100 Million+ Paid in Restitution to Consumers

Posted on July 20, 2023

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has announced that one of the country’s largest banks has agreed to pay more than $150 million in penalties and restitution for allegedly “double-dipping” on nonsufficient funds (NSF) fees, withholding credit card rewards, and opening accounts without customer knowledge or authorization. The penalties include paying $90 million in fines to the CFPB and $60 million in fines to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the majority of which will be used to redress harmed consumers.

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How to Engage Your Audience in Compliance Training

Posted on June 27, 2023

Compliance training can be a challenge. It can be difficult to make training engaging for the audience, keep up with new training styles, and ensure proper documentation for examiners. We will address those issues and provide some solutions to help improve your overall banking compliance training program.

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Compliance Considerations of Indirect Auto Lending Programs

Posted on May 25, 2023

During the past decade, multiple supervisory reviews have identified indirect auto lenders with discretionary pricing policies that resulted in discrimination against borrowers in violation of ECOA. In these cases, the institutions maintained discretionary pricing policies with auto dealers that were not adequately monitored or controlled for fair lending risks. Whenever there is “reason” to believe that a lender’s discretionary pricing policies have resulted in a pattern or practice of discrimination in violation of ECOA, the CFPB, is required to...

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CRA Modernization and Section 1071: a Perfect Storm

Posted on May 11, 2023

The CRA modernization proposal would require those institutions designated as intermediate and large banks not only to continue to collect and report certain information but proposes additional collection and reporting responsibilities. In most evaluations, this includes both HMDA and Small Business lending across all assessment areas, providing a level of certainty for the institution....

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How to Combat Discrimination in Banking

Posted on April 17, 2023

To combat the issue of discrimination in banking, we must examine the hard, unbiased, but ugly facts and create an inclusive banking environment. A thorough fair lending risk assessment will capture a picture of your organization and show your areas that require corrective action...

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Three Reasons Why Our Compliance Manual Gives Better Advice than Google

Posted on April 03, 2023

Our compliance manual, The Big Orange Book, was first published in 1988 and quickly became the industry standard compliance manual. Why did the Big Orange Book gain so much popularity so quickly? The answer is simple- our answers are simple. Ever-changing federal compliance regulations are stressful enough, so we decided to break complex regulations down in plain business English...

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Finance Charges Included or Not? The NCUA’s Interest Rate Ceiling

Posted on March 01, 2023

In conventional Truth in Lending(TILA)/Regulation Z compliance, the interest is one of several finance charges making up the larger “Finance Charge.” These “smaller” finance charges are the various fees charged for borrowing money, and taken together, tally up to the Finance Charge, which is defined as the cost of credit expressed as a dollar amount...

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