Today the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection issued its initial Supervision and Examination Manual. The Bureau states that the manual “is a guide to how the CFPB will supervise and examine consumer financial service providers under its jurisdiction for compliance with Federal consumer financial law.”
Much of the manual will be familiar to both examiners and supervised institutions. The manual incorporates examination procedures developed under the auspices of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) for many of the laws in the Bureau’s supervisory jurisdiction. The Bureau will also use FFIEC’s Uniform Consumer Compliance Rating System.
The Bureau also plans to release specific examination procedures, organized by product and line of business. Today’s release includes examination procedures for the mortgage servicing industry, and the Bureau promises to follow up with examination procedures for other industries and lines of business.
Initially, the Bureau will use the manual in its examination of large banks and depositary institutions currently under its supervision. Once a Director assumes office, the Bureau’s supervisory jurisdiction will expand to mortgage brokers, payday and small loan lenders, sales finance companies and certain other entities, and the Bureau will use the manual to supervise and examine those entities.