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Introducing Compliance Insights: Protiviti’s Monthly Roundup of News for Financial Services Firms

Steven Stachowicz, Managing Director Risk and Compliance

With global banking regulation consistently ranking as a top concern for financial service industry executives and directors, Protiviti has launched Compliance Insights, a monthly advisory newsletter designed to provide financial services industry (FSI) executives with timely news on issues that are relevant now.

Although primarily focused on banking compliance matters related to consumer protection, privacy, anti-money laundering/anti-terrorist financing, and sanctions, this short newsletter also includes topics applicable to other types of financial institutions, including those in capital markets and emerging financial technology (“fintech”).

The information we choose for our monthly briefing is not intended to be a complete picture of the FSI compliance landscape, but to provide clear and concise summaries on key topics we consider of interest to the industry.  We’re not going to cover everything; rather, each month we’ll highlight a handful of issues, tapping our subject-matter experts for analyses of the latest changes in rules and guidance.

Our inaugural issue, launched in July, led with a couple of updates on global payment systems.  In the wake of cyberattacks on the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) payments network, which facilitates cross-border interbank transfers, both SWIFT and the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) issued reminders to institutions of the need to manage risks associated with interbank electronic transactions. We also shared new guidance from the Wolfsberg Group of International Financial Institutions, an association of 13 global banks with a common goal of developing effective anti-money laundering (AML) standards. The guidance is related to financial institutions’ use of certain SWIFT services.

Other topics included:

  • Proposed rules from the SEC limiting the use of derivative investments by mutual funds;
  • The long-anticipated proposal from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) on rules governing payday, vehicle title, and other short-term, small-dollar loans; and
  • The possibility of fintech firms obtaining limited-purpose national bank charters, enabling them to operate under uniform federal regulation and supervision.

Our August issue, released last week, provides updates on another CFPB proposal, this one focused on third-party debt collection practices, plus several other topics we consider relevant:

  • A joint regulatory update of Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) Q&As
  • Increased regulatory scrutiny of potential money laundering at card clubs, casino-like gambling establishments offering exclusively card games
  • A ruling by a Miami judge in an anti-money laundering case that calls into question whether bitcoins are “money”
  • Upcoming changes to the Military Lending Act (MLA), which extends additional consumer lending protections to active-duty military personnel and their dependents

We hope you’ll find this resource useful – please let us know if you do or if you have any suggestions or suggested topics.

You can subscribe to Compliance Insights or send us your feedback here.

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