How to Avoid Bad Reg E Audits

June 12, 2019 – The financial sector is undergoing a digital transformation. Digitization is no more associated merely with tech companies. The financial sector is among the leaders in this digital makeover, primarily because of changing customer demographics. The modern customer prefers digital or electronic transactions over bank visits, increasing the importance of digital compliance solutions.

Current solutions are not capable of recognizing intricate problems like identifying and providing tools for compliance procedures like Regulation E Disputes. In this post, we’re going to dig deeper into Regulation E, the legal implications, and how a bank or a financial institution can avoid bad Regulation E Audits using FINBOA Regulation E Dispute Tracking solution.

The cost of bad Reg E Audits

Understanding Regulation E

Investopedia defines Regulation E as,

“a Federal Reserve regulation that outlines rules and procedures for electronic funds transfers (EFTs) and provides guidelines for issuers and sellers of electronic debit cards.”

In a world that’s rapidly turning towards digital payments, complying with Regualtion E is critical for every bank, financial institution, and fintech startup. Our research indicates that a bad Regualtion E audit could lead to penalties of up to $1,000 in case of individual actions, and up to $500,000 or 1% of a bank’s net worth under a class action, according to the Section 916 of the EFTA (Civil Liability).

What’s surprising is that financial institutions spend millions of dollars on compliance, yet the recent years have witnessed an increase in regulatory problems, consumer complaints, and even federal penalties. What businesses need to understand is that lacking a robust compliance infrastructure not only causes financial losses, but it has a detrimental impact on their brand image. Under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), the average penalty in 2017 stood at $66 million, and it was well over $180 million in 2018. Compliance violations are directly related to consumer trust and faith in a business, especially when it comes to problems around Regulation E disclosure requirements .

Common Mistakes in Regulation E Dispute Tracking

Not having an internal Regulation E compliance dispute tracking system

One of the best strategies to manage Regulation E issues is to create an internal compliance dispute tracking system. Businesses should develop an internal Regulation E dispute Tracking program for complaints related to Regulation E. Regular audits ensure that you can identify a problem before it becomes a disaster for your business.

Relying on legacy systems in the modern digital age

The business landscape changes in every couple of years, with new Regulation E Disclosure Requirements guidelines introducing more rules or norms for electronic fund transfers. It is critical to upgrade your Regulation E compliance management system accordingly, but that’s rarely the case. Small enterprises or even banks rely on legacy systems to cope up with the changing regulatory landscape. Working on fragmented systems not only makes data synchronization difficult, but it lowers the overall Regulation E dispute handling efficiency of the business.

Not using an integrated compliance program for Regulation E Disputes Tracking

Local banks and small businesses rely on standard programs like spreadsheets or databases for Regulation E Dispute tracking, tracking, and management. The result is not only operational inefficiency but creates  errors in tracking Regulation E disputes and claims.

FINBOA: Making Regulation E Dispute Tracking and Compliance Easier

The FINBOA platform brings together digital transformation, Regulation E compliance, process automation and customer experience. It enables integration with banks existing applications using data exchange processes and robotic process automation. It automates manual tasks that financial institutions perform while complying with several regulations. It enables financial institutions to intuitively execute processes such as filling the forms, posting transactions to the general ledger, and creating and sending notices. Further, the platform can generate ad-hoc reports and notify users of approaching deadlines.

FINBOA is cost effective for small institutions and equips them with the right tools to efficiently manage Regulation E claims, adjustments, and helps them stay compliant.

FINBOA Regulation E dispute tracking system provides:

• Pre-programmed digital transformation and document management platform that helps save time otherwise spent in managing paper forms, multiple word files or excel documents.
• An online interface for consumers to submit disputes with the e-signature capabilities that improves the overall customer experience.
• A Regulation E rules, workflows, and notices. Your employees don’t have to do manual calculations or write claim letters manually.
• An advance alert system with email notices. Furthermore, your staff can add custom deadlines to avoid missing internal deadlines.

Conclusion

Regulation E management isn’t easy, but with FINBOA, it becomes simple and efficient. FINBOA offers a comprehensive digital transformation solution for Regulation E management that integrates with banking systems. If you are a bank or financial service provider seeking a cutting-edge compliance solution, book a demo with FINBOA today.