Never Have We Had So Much Sympathy

The annual ABA Spring Bank Compliance Forum Teleconference is coming up on March 28, and we were requested to supply some statistics and quotes from the BANKERS' HOTLINE for "factoids" that will appear on the screen between subject segments. We were glad to do so, but had to really hunt for some of the subjects being addressed by the experts that day.

Subscribers and readers know that for the past six years we have concentrated on security, audit, personnel issues, and some particular areas of compliance-most especially on Regs CC, DD and the Bank Secrecy Act. We touch only lightly on lending, and with good reason. The subject is a landmine to bankers, and requires full time attention. We leave that to our sister publication, COMPLIANCE ACTION. But we had a list of six subjects for which to find facts. They were BSA, CRA, Fair Lending, Flood Insurance, HMDA, and RESPA.

We started to research.

What a mess!

BSA was the easiest, because we spend a great deal of time staying up-to-date on the changes-the latest of which (the new SAR) is in this newsletter.

Almost as easy was CRA, because the hue and cry have died down a little in the face of the political arena and the budget problems capturing the media attention, pushing CRA to a less important area. Fair Lending is a deep, many faceted regulation that can catch many compliance officers unaware of a three time amended amendment. Fortunately, it is just as complicated for the examiners.
But then we got to HMDA, Flood Insurance, and RESPA. (For those of you who don't work with these things-HMDA is Home Mortgage Disclosure Act and RESPA is Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act.)

I read 23 pages of RESPA changes and explanations, and had no way of translating or applying what I was reading! HMDA was no better, except that we did glean the fact that mortgage originations are down. Other than that, there were many, many amended amendments and proposals and final rules to wade through.

Copyright © 1996 Bankers' Hotline. Originally appeared in Bankers' Hotline, Vol. 6, No. 5, 3/96