Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council

FFIEC includes five banking regulators—the Federal Reserve Board of Governors (FRB), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

FFIEC was established March 10, 1979, pursuant to title X of the Financial Institutions Regulatory and Interest Rate Control Act of 1978 (FIRA).{{cite web| title= About the FFIEC |url= http://www.ffiec.gov/about.htm|publisher=FFIEC |access-date=7 July 2014}}{{Cite journal|last=Vértesy|first=László|date=2007|title=The Place and Theory of Banking Law - Or Arising of a New Branch of Law: Law of Financial Industries|journal=Collega|language=en|location=Rochester, NY|volume= 2-3. XI.|ssrn=3198092}}

The FFIEC was given additional statutory responsibilities by section 340 of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1980 to facilitate public access to data that depository institutions must disclose under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act of 1975 (HMDA) and the aggregation of annual HMDA data, by census tract, for each metropolitan statistical area (MSA). In accordance with HMDA, the FFIEC established an advisory State Liaison Committee composed of five representatives of state supervisory agencies. The HMDA requires "most lenders to identify the race, sex, and income of loan applicants and borrowers", so the FFIEC is able to deduce things like "the number of mortgages issued to black and Hispanic borrowers rose sharply", as it did in 1993.{{cite news |last1=Bradsher| first1=Keith| title=Minorities Get More Mortgages | work=The New York Times|url= https://www.nytimes.com/1994/07/29/business/minorities-get-more-mortgages.html|date=29 July 1994}} In 2006, the State Liaison Committee was added to the Council as a voting member.{{cite web|title=Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council|website=Federal Register|access-date=10 March 2015|url=https://www.federalregister.gov/agencies/federal-financial-institutions-examination-council}}

The Appraisal Subcommittee (ASC) was established within the FFIEC pursuant to title XI of the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act of 1989 (FIRREA). The ASC oversees The Appraisal Foundation, whose work is accomplished by three independent boards—the Appraiser Qualifications Board (AQB), the Appraisal Standards Board (ASB), and the Appraisal Practices Board (APB), who collectively regulate real estate appraisal in the United States.

Then Comptroller of the Currency and FFIEC Chair Thomas J. Curry stated on May 8, 2014, that "helping to make banks less vulnerable and more resilient to cyber-attacks" has been one of his top priorities.{{cite news|last1=Curry|first1=Thomas J.|title=Remarks by Thomas J. Curry, Comptroller of the Currency, Before RMA's Governance, Compliance, and Operational Risk Conference, Cambridge, Massachusetts|url=http://www.occ.gov/news-issuances/speeches/2014/pub-speech-2014-69a.pdf|work=Office of the Comptroller of the Currency|date=8 May 2014|page=7}}{{cite news|last1=Hoar|first1=Sean B.|title=Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council Launches Cybersecurity Webpage and Begins Cybersecurity Assessments|url=http://www.privsecblog.com/2014/07/articles/cyber-national-security/federal-financial-institutions-examination-council-launches-cybersecurity-webpage-and-begins-cybersecurity-assessments |work=Privacy & Security Law Blog|publisher=Davis Wright Tremaine LLP|date=1 July 2014}} In June 2014 FFIEC launched a new [https://www.ffiec.gov/cybersecurity.htm webpage] on cybersecurity and announced that it was initiating a pilot for 500 member institutions that will focus on how these institutions manage cybersecurity and how prepared they are to mitigate cyber risks.{{cite news|title= FFIEC Launches Cybersecurity Web Page, Promotes Awareness of Cybersecurity Activities |url=https://www.ffiec.gov/press/pr062414.htm|work= FFIEC Press Release |date=24 June 2014}} This was a welcome development since the FFIEC had previously relaxed their own guidance regarding cybersecurity. In guidance released in 2005, the body created rigorous standards that were to be enacted by subject institutions by the end of 2006 regarding multi-factor authentication.{{Cite web|title=FFIEC Press Release - October 12, 2005|url=https://www.ffiec.gov/press/pr101205.htm|access-date=2021-02-28|website=www.ffiec.gov}} The guidance called for strict measures to protect financial transactions that would combine biometrics with strong passwords and device fingerprinting, among other measures, as means of strong authentication. The document mentions biometrics fourteen separate times. The following year, the FFIEC released supplementary guidance that relaxed the strong authentication requirements, allowing institutions to add a "second authentication method" for layered security (not 2 factor authentication) – the supplement mentions biometrics only once.{{Cite web|date=2006|title=Supplement to Authentication in an Internet Banking Environment|url=https://www.ffiec.gov/pdf/auth-its-final%206-22-11%20(ffiec%20formated).pdf|website=FFIEC.gov}} Many institutions discontinued more costly two factor and biometric security measures in favor of what the FFIEC guidance had come to refer to as layered security. By the deadline, fully one third of banking and financial institutions had not complied.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vDcEAAAAMBAJ&dq=penalties+for+not+meeting+authentication+deadline+FFIEC+2006&pg=PA8|title=InfoWorld|date=2007-01-01|publisher=InfoWorld Media Group, Inc.|language=en}} When further guidance was released in 2011, it mentioned "strong authentication" only one time.{{Cite web|date=June 2011|title=Supplement toAuthentication in an Internet Banking Environment|url=https://www.ffiec.gov/pdf/Auth-ITS-Final%206-22-11%20(FFIEC%20Formated).pdf|website=FFIEC.gov}}

On June 30, 2015 the FFIEC released the FFIEC Cybersecurity Assessment Tool FFIEC. Cybersecurity Assessment Tool. Retrieved from https://www.ffiec.gov/cyberassessmenttool.htm to enable regulated financial institutions to assess their cybersecurity readiness. This tool may be used as a self-assessment. Regulators may also review the completed assessment during their examination.NCUA. FFIEC Releases Cybersecurity Assessment Tool. Press release. [Online] Available: https://www.ncua.gov/newsroom/Pages/NW20150630FFIEC.aspx

Consumer compliance in bank regulation is associated with the FFIEC’s Uniform Interagency Consumer Compliance Rating System (CC Rating System).{{cite news|title= FFIEC Issues Uniform Interagency Consumer Compliance Rating System |url=https://www.ffiec.gov/press/PDF/FFIEC_CCR_SystemFR_Notice.pdf|work= FFIEC Press Release |date=7 November 2016}} The FFIEC promotes compliance with federal consumer protection laws and regulations through each agency’s supervisory and outreach programs.

The FFIEC has six voting representatives of member agencies.{{cite news| last1=Werthan|first1=Jeffrey M.|title=Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) Member Agencies and State of New York to Focus Attention on Cybersecurity |url= http://www.natlawreview.com/article/federal-financial-institutions-examination-council-ffiec-member-agencies-and-state-n| work= National Law Review| date=11 May 2014}} As of August 2021, FFIEC members include:{{cite web|title=Leadership of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council 1979-Present|url=https://www.ffiec.gov/pdf/2019%20FFIEC%20Leadership%20Listing%20(1979-present)_April%202019.pdf |access-date=31 January 2020}}{{cite web|title=Members of the FFIEC|url=https://www.ffiec.gov/members.htm|access-date=10 August 2021}}

• Chair, Kyle S. Hauptman, Chairman / National Credit Union Administration{{cite web|title=Kyle S. Hauptman Designated NCUA Board Chairman|date=22 January 2025 |url=https://ncua.gov/newsroom/press-release/2025/kyle-s-hauptman-designated-ncua-board-chairman|access-date=21 February 2025}}
• Vice Chair, Michael J. Hsu, Acting Comptroller / Office of the Comptroller of the Currency{{cite web|title=OCC Leadership, Acting Conmptroller of the Currency|url=https://occ.gov/about/who-we-are/comptroller/bio-michael-hsu.html|access-date=10 August 2021}}
• Martin J. Gruenberg, Acting Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
• David Uejio, Acting Director / Consumer Financial Protection Bureau{{cite web|title=David Uejio, Acting Director|url=https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/the-bureau/acting-director/|access-date=10 August 2021|archive-date=24 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624223127/https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/the-bureau/acting-director/|url-status=dead}}
• Randal K. Quarles, Vice Chairman for Supervision of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
• Thomas Fite, Director / Indiana Department of Financial Institutions (as chair of the FFIEC State Liaison Committee of the CSBS, ACSSS, and NASCUS)

• Economic Growth and Regulatory Paperwork Reduction Act
• Systemically important financial institution (SIFI)

{{reflist}}

• {{Official website|http://www.ffiec.gov}}
• {{usctc|12|34}} (Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council)
• {{usctc|12|34A}} (Appraisal Subcommittee)
• [https://www.federalregister.gov/agencies/federal-financial-institutions-examination-council Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council] in the Federal Register

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Category:Bank regulation in the United States

Category:Real estate in the United States

Financial Institutions Examination Council

Category:Government agencies established in 1979

Category:Financial regulatory authorities of the United States