Real Estate Compliance and CFPB Compliance

Recently, Braden Perry discussed Real Estate encryption and client privacy with Virtru Business Solutions Blog and described how the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) monitors compliance and privacy.

The CFPB is designed to help consumers across the financial industry, said Perry. And company culture is often the biggest obstacle to CFPB compliance: “Many regulated companies are “reactive,” meaning that they do not anticipate issues but wait for issues to arise and then act or “react.” [They’re] short-sighted, looking at the near-term and not focused on long-term goals. “Proactive” companies are forward looking, not only in anticipating issues that might arise, but in having clear directions and goals.”

Perry recommended that companies remain open to change. Reactive organizations tend to resist security initiatives, creating an “uphill battle” for compliance staff. To succeed, organizations need full management buy-in.

Braden Perry Discusses Red Flags and Complaints with the Center for Auto Finance Excellence

Braden Perry, partner at Kennyhertz Perry, LLC, recently provided tips on dealer compliance with the Center for Auto Finance Excellence. Complaints to the lender “should be logged and kept as part of their books and records, and the lender should request review of these complaints regularly as part of their compliance program,” he says. And if a regulator comes calling, including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, “it is imperative that the lender can provide information in a clear and efficient manner and be able to defend its compliance plan and convey to the regulators that it reviews its dealers and takes consumer protection seriously.”

Kennyhertz Perry Client Alert: Enforcement Powers of the CFPB

Title X of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (the Act) established the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and authorizes it to supervise certain consumer financial services companies and large depository institutions and their affiliates for consumer protection purposes. The CFPB has been charged with implementing and examination for compliance with Federal consumer finance law.

The CFPB also has extensive authorities to not only investigate violations of federal consumer protection laws but also implement broad enforcement relief.