Regulatory Updates

In advance of a Senate Banking Committee hearing – which now has been postponed indefinitely – Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) wrote to ask the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to study the impact of Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) laws on the real estate sector. Read on for more details.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a report and Request for Information (RFI) regarding the bureau’s sources of data and how data is used. The report provides transparency into how the bureau collects and uses data and the accompanying RFI gives the public an opportunity to comment on those practices. Read on for more details.

The Nevada Commissioner of Insurance recently released a revised proposed regulation regarding the safeguarding of customer information. It would require licensees to implement customer information security programs, among other things. Read on for more details.

Five federal agencies — the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Federal Reserve Board, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the National Credit Union Administration and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency — issued a joint statement explaining the role of supervisory guidance for regulated institutions. Read on for more details.

The Vermont Department of Financial Regulation has issued a new regulation, effective Oct. 1, to create a minimum framework within which residential real estate mortgage loan commitment letters are to be issued by mortgagees in the state and encourage complete and timely disclosure of information to consumers. Read on for more details.

On Aug. 23, the U.S. Senate Banking Committee voted to move Kathy Kraninger’s nomination to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to the full Senate. The vote occurred after the committee delayed the vote from Aug. 2. Read on for more details.

Washington Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler announced a new chief deputy commissioner. She will begin the position Aug. 27. Read on for more details.

Updates to the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act written into law in 2015 have been finalized in regulatory language by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The changes exempt certain financial institutions from having to send customers annual privacy notices. Read on for more.

In a recent report targeted at nonbank financial companies and fintech, the Treasury Department offered recommendations on third-party vendor oversight.

Although the report brought up the issues given the prism of relationships between financial technology firms and nonbank financial firms, the Treasury Department recommendations rang well beyond that arena.

Its potentially biggest recommendation: For all prudential financial regulators to review current third-party guidance through notice-and-comment process.

New legislation in Louisiana took effect Aug. 1 granting the state insurance commissioner the authority to allow an insurance producer to employ in his business or to associate with his business an individual previously convicted of a felony if the producer first obtains the written consent of or a waiver from the commissioner.

The Louisiana Department of Insurance issued an advisory letter to all insurance producers to detail terms of the statute and implementation.

Read on for details of the letter and how producers need to come into compliance with the new state law.