Where oh Where?Is that Regulation?

Sometimes it is easy finding a regulation. The examiner - or someone with a similar role in your life - places it directly under your nose. But there are times when you need to find it without that kind of help. What to do?

If the regulation is in your compliance handbook, finding it can be pretty easy. But nothing in the life of a compliance manager is ever totally easy. You'll need to know where to find some of the less-readily-available regulations.

All federal regulations are codified in the United States Code of Federal Regulations, abbreviated to "CFR." Within the CFR, the code is divided into titles (which look an awful lot like volumes in any other system.) Each of these titles deals with a specific subject area. Title 12 of the CFR is Banks and Banking. In Title 12, you will find most (but not all) of the regulations for your compliance program. There are a few regulations, such as RESPA, which are issued by non-banking agencies and, for that reason, sit in other Titles of the CFR.

Within Title 12, subparts are assigned to specific agencies. The OCC comes first. Then, in the 200s comes the FRB. FDIC has the 300s; OTS has the 500s. This is why the Federal Reserve Board's regulations all begin with a 2 - Regulation Z is 226, Regulation B is 202; Regulation E is 205.

The numbers within the 200s relate to the letter of the alphabet. Once the FRB got past Z (12 CFR 226) they started again with Regulation AA, which is numbered 12 CFR 227. Regulation DD is thus 12 CFR 230. If you need to look up a regulation issued by the FDIC, go to 12 CFR 300 and up. If you are a thrift looking for OTS regulations, go to 12 CFR 500 and up.

And of course, if it's a banking reg, the absolute best place to look is right here on BOL. Check out Alphabet Soup!

Copyright © 2000 Compliance Action. Originally appeared in Compliance Action, Vol. 5, No. 14, 12/00