by Amy Kleinschmit, Director of Compliance

Small Credit Union Definition – Check out the new video on InfoSight under CUBE TV that discusses the benefits that the recent NCUA’s final rule amending the definition of a small entity will bring to an additional 2,2270 credit unions. As you will recall, in January the NCUA raised the asset threshold from $10 million to $50 million for the definition of a small entity.

NEW ACH Rules.

Source: InfoSight Compliance eNEWSLETTER, March 1, 2013, Vol. 7, Issue 9

New Automated Clearing House Rules that will provide broader ACH protections for credit union members will go into effect on March 15, 2013. There are two components of the rule changes that are particularly important to take note of:

Data Passing

This amendment to the ACH Rules protects members from having their account information used to create unauthorized transactions. The first part of this rule prohibits the ODFI from disclosing a member’s account information to any third party for use in initiating a debit transaction that is not originally authorized. This type of transaction occurs when a third party sells a member's account information to another third party to initiate subsequent transactions.

The second component of the rule requires that the originator or third-party service provider not disclose a member’s account information for use in initiating a debit transaction that is not part of the original authorization. This can occur when a member has authorized a payment for merchandise, and then the company sends subsequent products using the initial authorization to charge for the additional products.

Incomplete Transactions

The incomplete transaction amendment allows an RDFI to return an ACH transaction to a consumer account for incomplete transactions within 60 days of the settlement date. An example is mortgage payments made through ACH by your members that never get credited to their mortgage accounts with other lenders. This rule does not include purchases for goods or services that the member did not receive or was dissatisfied with.

For more information on these amendments please reference the 2013 ACH Rule Book.

Please do not hesitate to contact Amy Kleinschmit at akleinschmit@cuad.coop or 701.214.9721 with any questions or concerns on these or any other compliance topics. If you are not on InfoSight yet, request an account right now at this link: http://dakotas.leagueinfosight.com/Security_-_Login_36635.html?return_to=%2F