The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) will be launching
a new Banker Engagement Site (BES) through FDICconnect to provide a
secure portal through which financial institutions may exchange documents,
information and communications for consumer compliance and Community
Reinvestment Act (CRA) examinations.
BES is being introduced as the primary tool for exchanging
materials used by the Division of Depositor and Consumer Protection for
examination planning, according to a release by the FDIC. The FDIC’s Enterprise
File Exchange tool will continue to be used in instances where pre-planning for
consumer compliance and CRA activity was initiated prior to the availability of
BES, as well as examination processes not related to consumer compliance, such
as safety and soundness examinations.
The new site is expected to facilitate more efficient
communication between FDIC examiners and authorized banking staff. This will be
particularly valuable with respect to responses to requests for information and
documents throughout the supervisory process.
To improve the banker experience, the release notes, BES
developers added the following new functionality and features:
·
“The ability for bank users to collaborate with
the FDIC’s examination team when responding to information and document
requests;
·
“The capability to submit questions and comments
to the examination team;
·
“The ability to view submitted responses and
documents;
·
“The capability to associate responses with
specific requests;
·
“The ability to manage the bank’s user roles and
permissions;
·
“The availability of informative user guides and
training resources;
·
“Contact information for the examination team;
·
“Access to the pre-examination planning response
provided for the previous examination; and
·
“An ability to opt-out of using BES
(institutions will be provided an alternative method to respond to
pre-examination planning requests and to exchange information).”
Financial institutions will be introduced to BES during
their initial pre-examination contact with FDIC examiners, the release states. BES
is integrated with the FDIC’s identity access system via FDICconnect for
user authentication. Registration is required for external FDICconnect users
to benefit from BES’s enhanced capabilities.