This week, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) notified mortgage lenders on how to treat confidential information related to the agency’s examination practices.
Under the CFPB’s regulations, reference is made to CSI. CSI may include any work papers or other documentation that CFPB examiners have prepared in the course of an examination. Any CFPB supervisory actions, such as memoranda of understanding between the CFPB and an institution and related submissions and correspondence, are also considered as confidential information.
Even if firms have signed private confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements that restrict the sharing of certain information with a regulator, the NDAA may very well be considered voidable and superseded by CFPB regulation. The Bureau has authority over certain non-bank financial companies such as mortgage lenders and servicers, payday lenders, private student lenders, as well as large debt collectors, consumer reporting agencies, student loan servicers and international remittance providers.
So this bulletin addresses the work papers prepared by the auditor or regulator as they work their way through your records. What I think it means, is that even if you have a confidentiality agreement with a party, federal rules supersede that agreement and you are NOT allowed to discuss the confidential work papers of the auditors who examined you. So if there is a practice out there of sharing “audit stories” it may now become a violation to talk amongst yourselves about certain aspects of audits.
Unless of course a lawyer-client or other qualified privilege exist. Such as psychiatrist, pastor, spouse; etc.
Sounds a bit like shock and awe tactics. Not sure; maybe I have misread it. One things for sure, with all the complexity of the CFPB you will need a psychiatrist, and you already need a good lawyer. The six page bulletin is available here.
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