CoNetrix

Blog: Bank

A new Bill, H.R. 6312: Credit Union, Bank, and Thrift Regulatory Relief Act of 2008, was introduced June 19, 2008, and passed by the House on June 24, 2008.  The bill has now been sent to the Senate and awaits a vote. [more]

The Short titles of the new Legislation include:

Title I – Credit Unions

Sec. 101. Investments in securities by Federal credit unions.
Sec. 102. Increase in investment limit in credit union service organizations.
Sec. 103. Member business loan exclusion for loans to nonprofit religious organizations.
Sec. 104. Authority of NCUA to establish longer maturities for certain credit union loans.
Sec. 105. Providing the National Credit Union Administration with greater flexibility in responding to market conditions.
Sec. 106. Conversions of certain credit unions to a community charter.
Sec. 107. Credit union participation in the SBA section 504 program.
Sec. 108. Amendments relating to credit union service to underserved areas.
Sec. 109. Short-term payday loan alternatives within field of membership.
Sec. 110. Credit union governance.
Sec. 111. Encouraging small business development in underserved urban and rural communities.

Title II – Savings Association Provisions

Sec. 201. Restatement of authority for Federal savings associations to invest in small business investment companies.
Sec. 202. Removal of limitation on investments in auto loans.
Sec. 203. Repeal of qualified thrift lender requirement with respect to out-of-state branches.
Sec. 204. Small business and other commercial loans.
Sec. 205. Increase in limits on commercial real estate loans.
Sec. 206. Savings association credit card banks.

Title III – Notice Provisions

Sec. 301. Exception to annual privacy notice requirement under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act.

Title IV – Business Checking

Sec. 401. Short title.
Sec. 402. Interest-bearing transaction accounts authorized for all businesses.
Sec. 403. Interest-bearing transaction accounts authorized.
Sec. 404. Rules of construction.
Sec. 405. Consumer banking costs assessment.

Financial Institutions, Bank, Bill, Privacy, GLBA,
 

The FFIEC released the new Business Continuity Planning (BCP) IT Examination Handbook this month.  The prior BCP IT Examination Handbook was released in March, 2003.  A few new key areas include:

  • Pandemic Planning
  • More emphasis on:
    • Business Impact Analysis (BIA)
    • Risk Assessment
    • Testing

The new BCP IT Examination Handbook has been greatly expanded - to give you an idea, the old BCP booklet (March 2003) was only 57 pages, and the new booklet (March 2008) is 132 pages - more than twice the size - this should also give us an indication of the new importance & emphasis placed on Business Continuity.  

To view the new BCP IT Examination Handbook, go to http://ithandbook.ffiec.gov/it-booklets/business-continuity-planning.aspx.  You can also check out our BCP Software offering.

Financial Institutions, Security and Compliance, Bank, FFIEC, BCP,
 

The shredding of printed information is an important part of information security.  It's important to use a cross cut paper shredder as apposed to a strip cut shredder, but most of all it's important to verify that all your printed information is being shredded before it's thrown away.  [more]

During a recent audit we had a client tell us that they collect all their paper to be shredded, lock it up daily, and then send it to one of their main branches for shredding on a weekly basis.  It's our standard procedure to check the dumpsters behind our customers during our audits and in this case we found a few trash bags of non-shredded paper containing customer information. A trash bag full of paper with customer information appears to be regular trash to the untrained janitorial staff.  In this case proper labeling and more training could have helped avoid this problem.  Taking the time periodically to ensure that your paper shredding procedures are being followed could prevent exposing your confidential information.

Security and Compliance, Bank, info sec, shredding, audit,