kleopatraxnibe.blogspot.com
Today, that number is up to five. And if the compliances and regulatory environment continues to evolve as ithas been, Baker easily sees his team growinyg to eight people in the next few years. is just a huge pieces of banking thesedays -- and a huge he said. "And there's more and more requirementse and regulations allthe That's just the nature of it." Baket is not alone in his nor is Columbia on its own in beefing up its attentionh to compliance. These days, bankds large and small face a growing host ofcompliance Some, such as the Bank Secrecy Act and the Community Reinvestment Act, have been around for nearlyg 40 years.
Others, like the Fair and Accurater Credit Transactions Act andthe bank-related provisions of the USA Patriotf Act, are relatively new. And still like those predicted to precipitate out of the subprimsmortgage crisis, have yet to be enactec but are surely in the works. "We'll probably see a lot of legislatio n that comes out of all the subprime Baker said. In additionb to being scrutinized by federal banks also must complywith state-specifif laws, stay in line with their own internapl auditing departments and, in the case of publiclg traded banks like meet their shareholders' expectations.
With all these requirementw comeincreasing responsibilities, costs and challengesw for banks. "We are in an industrgy where we are under a tremendous amounrt ofregulatory compliance," said Jeanne Firstenburg, chief operatin g officer of in Vancouver, Wash. "It's increasingly more challengingf to not only meet all theexistinfg requirements, but to keep currentf on all the new ones, Today, banks need to comply with at least 30 federa regulations and 15 to 20 Among the most familiar: the Bank Secrecy Act, whicu helps detect money laundering and whicy also tripped up former New York Gov.
Eliot Spitzer, who in Marcuh was linked to aprostitution ring; the Fair Credity Reporting Act (amended by the Fair and Accurated Credit Transactions Act in 2003), which givesz people access to their credit reports; and the Patriotr Act, which contains provisions on proper identification for peoplw opening new accounts. "There's a laundryu list," said Sylvia Flabetich, regional services managere forin Vancouver, Wash.
"Burt a lot of the regulations are for the protectionj of the consumer and the protection of the soI don't ever see a day when it will go Ellen Sas, president and CEO of and a 25-year vetera of the financial industry, said much of the increased focus on compliancde over the past couple of years has stemmedf from the state of various markets, namely consumer and subprim e lending. Regulators are also looking more closely than they may have in the especially post-9/11. "They've paid attention to things they haven't paid attentioh to before," Sas said. "Thingds like advertising and disclosures, anything that you say to the public.
And they dig reall deep if you doanythingy that's not traditional, like some of the differentg types of mortgage As the laundry list of compliance measuresd has grown, so too have banks' burdens when it come to compliance, whether in employee infrastructure upgrades or even in penalties for noncompliance. "It'sd just a constant barrage of informatiohn and trainingand retraining," said Jim Pishue, president and CEO of the .
"Fodr banks, it takes a lot of a lot of man hoursand it's very Survey results by the Deloitted Center for Banking Solutions found that compliance spending at some of the nation's largest banks grew an average of 159 percent over the last five years. Among the executivew surveyed, 85 percent said penalties fornoncompliance -- which can range from finezs to restrictions on opening new brancgh locations -- had increased, and 95 perceny of them said their managemenyt and administrative employees were spending more time on compliance than ever before.
And it'sa not just for front-line employees: Almost everyonse connected witha bank, from a teller to a boarde member, is required to take some form of regula compliance training.
No comments:
Post a Comment