Share

World Council Announces New Advocacy Blog

Volume 6, Number 5
September 11, 2017

World Council Announces New Advocacy Blog

World Council of Credit Unions’ Advocacy Department is pleased to announce the “Advocate,” World Council’s new advocacy blog that will provide our members with breaking developments affecting cooperative financial institutions around the world.  "We are very excited to add this new delivery channel to help keep our members updated on the cutting edge of advocacy," said Michael Edwards, World Council’s vice president and general counsel. 

Please be sure to visit the “Advocate” blog frequently for regular updates at the following link.

Basel Committee Proposes Simplified Market Risk Rules

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision has proposed a “Simplified Alternative” reserve methodology for market risks—such as interest rate risk and foreign exchange risk—in an effort to reduce regulatory compliance burdens on smaller, less complex banks and credit unions that do not have cross-border branch offices.  World Council’s summary and analysis of the proposal can be found here.

If finalized as proposed, the new standard would create an operationally simpler (and less granular) reserve methodology in exchange for relatively higher market risk capital requirements. Use of the proposed “Simplified Alternative” would be subject to national supervisory approval. 

World Council’s members are invited to provide input regarding this proposal to Regulatory Counsel Andy Price at aprice@woccu.org by September 21, 2017.

Basel Committee Seeks Comment on Regulating Fintech

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision on August 31st issued a proposal seeking comment on how best to regulate the “fintech” industry entitled Sound Practices: Implications of Fintech Developments for Banks and Bank Supervisors.  The fintech sector includes financial technology companies that offer services similar to retail banking products or act as vendors to deposit-taking institutions such as banks and credit unions.

The Committee’s proposal appears to be an attempt to level the playing field between the regulation of traditional deposit-taking institutions and the rapidly developing new technologies that appear in some instances to circumvent existing financial services rules.  World Council’s members are invited to provide input regarding this proposal to Regulatory Counsel Andy Price at aprice@woccu.org by October 24, 2017.

World Council’s Compliance Guide for the EU’s General Data Protection RegulationEU-US Privacy Shield

World Council is pleased to make available our new Compliance Guide for the EU General Data Protection Regulation/EU-US Privacy Shield to World Council’s member associations and their member institutions.

This recently adopted European Union (EU) data protection legal framework is intended to establish rules for privacy applicable to businesses located anywhere in the world who have customers living in the EU.  This EU regulation claims jurisdiction over non-European companies, including financial cooperatives that have at least one member living in the EU, even though the EU is asserting universal jurisdiction primarily to regulate non-European technology companies like Google.

The EU’s framework requires institutions to appoint a data protection officer, have in place data protection policies that include recordkeeping and data breach notification requirements, obtain consumers’ consent to collect data, and observe other EU consumer data protection rules.  EU authorities can impose fines for non-compliance of EUR 20 million or more per violation.

The United States of America’s Commerce Department and Federal Trade Commission—the latter of which has jurisdiction over US-based privately insured credit unions—have also agreed to help require most US-based businesses to follow this framework, based in part on the Commission’s authority to prohibit unfair and deceptive acts and practices.  The US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau may issue similar guidance in the future that would apply to other US-based credit unions and banks, and EU residents may also have a private right of action to sue non-compliant companies under the US’s Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

For further information and to review the Compliance Guide, please click here (Login Required).

 

Michael S. Edwards

VP & General Counsel
World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU)
601 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20004-2601 USA
Office: +1-202-508-6755 | Mobile: +1-215-668-5240 | Fax: +1-202-638-3410
medwards@woccu.org | www.woccu.org

twitter  Follow me on Twitter


Previous Editions