WASHINGTON, D.C. — Five federal supervisory agencies recently
released a Memorandum of Understanding aimed at clarifying how the agencies
will coordinate their supervisory activities consistent with the Dodd-Frank
Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

The five agencies joining forces for this MOU included the Board
of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Consumer Financial Protection
Bureau, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the National Credit Union
Administration and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

Officials explained Section 1025 of the Dodd-Frank Act requires
that the CFPB and the prudential regulators — the Board of Governors of the
Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the National
Credit Union Administration and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency —
coordinate important aspects of their supervision of insured depository
institutions with more than $10 billion in assets and their affiliates.

Such
coordination includes scheduling examinations, conducting simultaneous
examinations of covered depository institutions unless an institution requests
separate examinations and sharing draft reports of examination for comment.

The agencies stressed the MOU is intended to establish
arrangements for coordination and cooperation between the CFPB and the
prudential regulators, minimize unnecessary regulatory burden, avoid
unnecessary duplication of effort and decrease the risk of conflicting
supervisory directives.

Under the MOU, the agencies will coordinate examinations and
other supervisory activities and share certain material supervisory information
concerning:

—Compliance with federal consumer financial laws and certain
other federal laws that regulate consumer financial products and services.

—Consumer compliance risk management programs.

—Activities such as underwriting, sales, marketing,
servicing, collections, if they are related to consumer financial products or
services.

—Other related matters that the agencies may mutually agree
upon.

"These coordination undertakings should lead to greater
uniformity and efficiencies in supervision and help to minimize regulatory
burden on covered depository institutions," officials stated.

The MOU can be downloaded here.