Compliance and Regulators

Bank for International Settlements (BIS): The BIS has is a central banking institution owned and controlled by central banks and it provides a number of highly-specialized services to central banks and, through them, to the international financial system more generally. The Bank's predominant tasks are summed up most succinctly in part of Article 3 of its original Statutes. They are "to promote the co-operation of central banks and to provide additional facilities for international financial operations ...". This site provides information on ongoing activities, publications and links to central banks. http://www.bis.org/index.htm

Better Business Bureau: The site where you can file a dipute resolution, find reliability reports, file a lemon law compaint etc. http://www.bbb.org/

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System: This site is relatively weak. It has short summary discussions of Fed regulations, information on enforcement actions, and supervisory letters. Information on interstate banking is useful. It does, however, have excellent economic and financial data. http://www.federalreserve.gov

Code of Federal Regulations (CFR): This U.S. Federal reference provides a searchable database of Federal regulations. The CFR is a codification of the general and permanent rules published in the Federal Register by the Executive departments and agencies of the Federal Government. http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/cfr-table-search.html

Commodity Futures Trading Commission: This site provides opinions and orders, pending regulations, new contracts, enforcement, advisories, and reparations. http://www.cftc.gov/cftc/cftchome.htm

Cornell University Law School Legal Information Institute: This excellent site provides very useful discussions of federal laws dealing with all aspects of consumer laws, good references, and state materials. This is a must site for doing research http://www.law.cornell.edu/topics/consumer_credit.html

Credit Protection Act (Wage Garnishment): This section of the DOL site describes who is covered, provisions and requirements, and penalties. http://www.dol.gov/asp/programs/guide/garnish.htm

Department of Commerce: A site of an organization that promotes innovation, free trade, and commerce. http://www.commerce.gov/

Department of Labor (DOL): This site has considerable information on employee and pension issues. http://www.dol.gov
For pension information also check out the site for the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.

Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1973: This section of the DOL site describes who is covered, basic provisions, reporting and disclosure, fiduciary standards, exemptions, and enforcement. http://www.dol.gov/dol/topic/health-plans/erisa.htm

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission: This is the site of the federal administrative agency responsible for interpreting and enforcing the sexual harassment law. Facts about sexual harassment are found at: http://www.eeoc.gov/facts/fs-sex.html Visitors can also learn how to file a claim with the EEOC at http://www.eeoc.gov/facts/howtofil.html

Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993: This section of the DOL site provides information on who is covered, provisions and requirements, and penalties. http://www.dol.gov/dol/compliance/comp-fmla.htm

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation: This bank and thrift regulator has excellent sources of information on commercial bank examination procedures and loan underwriting trends. http://www.fdic.gov/ Using examinations for the previous six months, the agency analyzes changes in credit standards; risk of current practices; and specific aspects of current underwriting practices for commercial, construction, commercial real estate, consumer, credit card, home-equity, and agriculture loans. The FDIC databank with its many reports is found at: http://www.fdic.gov/bank/index.html

Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council: This organization of the major depository regulatory agencies coordinates examination and supervision activities. The site has information on CRA filings, who’s required to create a CRA report, and year 2000 CRA compliance. http://www.ffiec.gov
Find extensive information on the community reinvestment act including an extensive question and answer section on all facets of CRA.

Federal Housing Administration (FHA) (HUD site): This site provides information about FHA mortgage insurance programs, including lender activities, program descriptions, servicing requirements, claims, and assets sales. http://www.hud.gov/groups/lenders.cfm

Federal Trade Commission: This site includes specific regulations for disclosures of consumer protection related issues and federal antitrust http://www.ftc.gov

National Association of Insurance Commissioners: This site provides model state laws for hundreds of insurance issues organized into 40 categories. These are sold. There is good information on Internet marketing of insurance and securities valuation. http://www.naic.org

National Credit Union Administration: This is a very extensive site as long as you can download Acrobat pdf files. In the regulatory area it has the Federal Credit Union Act, bylaws, rules and regulations, a two-volume examination manual, prohibition orders, accounting manuals and letters, and regulatory alerts. You can get just about everything they publish. The site is well organized as well. http://www.ncua.gov

Office of the Comptroller of the Currency: This site is strong on CRA and provides useful information on enforcement, proposed regulations, and legal interpretations. http://www.occ.treas.gov/

Office of Thrift Supervision: This site provides information on laws, regulations, policies, final and interim rules, legal opinions, many Acrobat pdf downloadable file resources on electronic banking, and guidance notices. There is a good section on safety and soundness guidelines. http://www.ots.treas.gov

Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC): This site provides excellent information for those in your firm responsible for private defined benefit pension programs. Information includes an FAQ about PBGC guarantees, programs and benefits, the PBGC early warning system, and the Acrobat pdf 75-page downloadable file entitled Pension Insurance Data Book. http://www.pbgc.gov

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission: This site provides extensive regulatory information, including proposed and final rules, staff accounting, self-regulatory information, rule making, and SRO rule making. There is also plenty of enforcement information with litigation and administrative releases, investor alerts, and insider trading information. http://www.sec.gov