Compliance Corner with Amy K
by Amy Kleinschmit, Director of ComplianceJust before Christmas break began, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a proposed rule and request for comment to revise subpart B of Regulation E, which covers international remittance transfers. The proposal can be found at this link: http://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/201212_cfpb_remittances-proposal.pdf
The final rule on remittance transfers was issued February 7, 2012, with a supplemental rule being subsequently issued on August 20, 2012. As you may recall the supplemental rule included the safe harbor for determining who is not a remittance transfer provider under the Final Rule. This final rule has (had) an effective date of February 7, 2013. In this recently issued proposal, the CFPB is proposing to temporarily delay the February 7, 2013 effective date of the Final Rule and extend it to 90 days after this proposal is finalized. Please note that the delay is still a proposal and not final.
The CFPB intends to only address three narrow items with this proposal. One of the proposed changes would provide additional flexibility and guidance on how foreign taxes and recipient institution fees may be disclosed. The CPFB is also proposing to eliminate the requirement to disclose foreign taxes at the regional, state, provincial or local level. Therefore, a remittance transfer provider’s disclosure obligation would be limited to foreign taxes imposed on the remittance transfer by a country’s central government. Finally, it is proposed to revise the error resolution provisions, specifically, those that apply when a sender provides incorrect or insufficient information and, in particular, when a remittance transfer is not delivered to a designated recipient because the sender provided an incorrect account number to the remittance transfer provider and the incorrect account number results in the funds being deposited in the wrong account.
Comments concerning the proposed temporary delay of the February 7, 2013, effective date need to be received within 15 days from the date of publication of this proposal in the Federal Register. Comments on the other proposals are required to be received within 30 days from the publication date in the Federal Register.
Should you have any questions or concerns on this or any other compliance topic, please do not hesitate to contact Amy Kleinschmit at akleinschmit@cuad.coop or 701.214.9721.