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#2172745 - 04/10/18 03:28 PM
Internet Rate "Sheet"
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Diamond Poster
Joined: Oct 2015
Posts: 1,668
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I have done a lot of research on the topic of advertising and I have not been able to come to a clear conclusion on an Internet page that lists the rates of a creditor's various products. Obviously, as the APR is a trigger term for open-end credit, and "30-year" is a trigger term for closed-end credit, there would be various triggered term disclosures necessary for such a page. I see the exemption in the definition of "advertising" for "Informational material, for example, interest-rate and loan-term memos, distributed only to business entities." But, as the internet display is not only for business entities, then it wouldn't seem to apply. Is it common practice that lenders consider a rate sheet page on their website as an electronic advertisement requiring all the necessary disclosures? If not, should it be, lol?If so, do most creditors use the one-click rule to take the viewer to a page with all the relevant triggered terms? Or, does this not fall within the scope of an "advertisement?"
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#2172754 - 04/10/18 03:51 PM
Re: Internet Rate "Sheet"
Compliance NABW
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Power Poster
Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 2,658
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JPC - As I'm sure you suspect, webpage rate sheets are absolutely considered an advertisement and covered by the rules. That said, I have seen many that do not follow the rules as some regulators don't seem to even look at them, though that does not mean that they are correct. For me, I have only recently seen a growing trend where banks are now utilizing the 1-click rule. In the past, I had not seen it used very often, but am seeing it much more often now.
I recently did a random sample of about a half dozen financial institution I was familiar with and found that they all had rate sheets on their websites, but only a couple had full compliance with the advertising rules.
_________________________
Adam Witmer, CRCM All statements are my opinion, not those of my employer, and should not be taken as legal advice. www.compliancecohort.com
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#2172864 - 04/10/18 08:04 PM
Re: Internet Rate "Sheet"
Compliance NABW
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10K Club
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 10,179
Toano, VA
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Shortly after Al Gore invented the internet, banks discovered that it offered new and exciting ways to violate Reg. Z's advertising rules. For several years before and after the dawn of this century, I presented seminars on the general topic of "regulatory compliance and the internet." It was a full day and there was never a shortage of live examples of bank websites with assorted violations of a number of regs. Occasionally, some of my poster children found and fixed an error and then I had to search for another bank violating that particular rule. Before each seminar, I always found 10 bank websites with loan rateboard pages and did a quick pass/fail test. The best I could ever report to my audience was a 20% "pass" rate for these rateboard pages.
Adam is right about the regulators. With rare exception, they have done a poor job of policing the rules applicable to rateboard web page ads.
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...gone fishing.
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#2173078 - 04/11/18 07:47 PM
Re: Internet Rate "Sheet"
Compliance NABW
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Diamond Poster
Joined: Oct 2015
Posts: 1,668
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Thank you all for confirming what I expected the answer to be.
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#2173082 - 04/11/18 08:20 PM
Re: Internet Rate "Sheet"
P*Q
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10K Club
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 10,179
Toano, VA
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They may not going forward if they stumble across this thread. I've said the same thing for 20 years, so it will be a shock if this thread finally gets their attention.
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...gone fishing.
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#2173153 - 04/12/18 01:17 PM
Re: Internet Rate "Sheet"
Compliance NABW
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Diamond Poster
Joined: Oct 2015
Posts: 1,668
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I participated in probably around 70 exams during my time with the OCC. I don't think we ever reviewed TILA advertising compliance.
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#2173186 - 04/12/18 02:57 PM
Re: Internet Rate "Sheet"
Compliance NABW
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10K Club
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 10,179
Toano, VA
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Thanks for the candor, JPC. It's obvious that your agency's posture wasn't out of line with the other regulators. If Reg. Z's advertising rules aren't going to be enforced, they should be repealed.
_________________________
...gone fishing.
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#2173210 - 04/12/18 04:11 PM
Re: Internet Rate "Sheet"
Compliance NABW
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Diamond Poster
Joined: Oct 2015
Posts: 1,668
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Man, if that was the case, almost everything would have to be repealed, lol. We only have/had 3 mandatory consumer compliance items to review: Flood, SCRA, and Fair Lending Risk Assessment. Other than these 3, we picked up other Regulations "as time allowed." But, considering BSA/AML was also required and that took up the majority of our allotted time, "as time allowed" didn't happen very often. And, if it did, it was only 1 or 2 regulations. I usually picked up Reg. CC because I knew I could find violations with the Exception Hold notices or process.
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#2173378 - 04/13/18 02:12 PM
Re: Internet Rate "Sheet"
Compliance NABW
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Diamond Poster
Joined: Oct 2015
Posts: 1,668
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This is because the OCC does not have a separate consumer compliance examination, like the FDIC and FRB^. Yes, in the areas the OCC does look at though, they are well known as the "tougher" regulator.
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