Risk Management Manual of Examination Policies - FDIC

LOANS Section 3.2
• Sublicensee Bank, which maintains accountability for
credit card loans and merchant's accounts; may
maintain its own center for processing payments and
drafts; and may maintain facilities for embossing
credit cards.
• Licensee Bank, which is the same as sublicensee bank,
but in addition may perform transaction processing
and credit card embossing services for sublicensee
banks, and also acts as a regional or national
clearinghouse for sublicensee banks.
Check credit and credit card loan policies should address
procedures for careful screening of account applicants;
establishment of internal controls to prevent interception of
cards before delivery, merchants from obtaining control of
cards, or customers from making fraudulent use of lost or
stolen card; frequent review of delinquent accounts,
accounts where payments are made by drawing on
reserves, and accounts with steady usage; delinquency
notification procedures; guidelines for realistic charge-offs;
removal of accounts from delinquent status (curing)
through performance not requiring a catch-up of delinquent
principal; and provisions that preclude automatic
reissuance of expired cards to obligors with charged-off
balances or an otherwise unsatisfactory credit history with
the bank.
Examination procedures for reviewing these activities are
included in the ED Modules. Also, the FDIC has separate
manuals on Credit Card Specialty Bank Examination
Guidelines and Credit Card Securitization Activities.
Credit Card-related Merchant Activities
Merchant credit card activities basically involve the
acceptance of credit card sales drafts for clearing by a
financial institution (clearing institution). For the clearing
institution, these activities are generally characterized by
thin profit margins amidst high transactional and sales
volumes. Typically, a merchant's customer will charge an
item on a credit card, and the clearing institution will give
credit to the merchant's account. Should the customer
dispute a charge transaction, the clearing institution is
obligated to honor the customer's legitimate request to
reverse the transaction. The Clearing Institution must then
seek reimbursement from the merchant. Problems arise
when the merchant is not creditworthy and is unable, or
unwilling, to reimburse the clearing institution. In these
instances, the clearing institution will incur a loss.
Examiners should review for the existence of any such
contingent liabilities.
In order to avoid losses and to ensure the safe and
profitable operation of a clearing institution's credit card
activities, the merchants with whom it contracts for
clearing services should be financially sound and honestly
operated. To this end, safe and sound merchant credit card
activities should include clear and detailed acceptance
standards for merchants. These standards include the
following:
• A clearing institution should scrutinize prospective
merchants with the same care and diligence that it uses
in evaluating prospective borrowers.
• Financial institutions engaging in credit card clearing
operations must closely monitor their merchants.
Controls should be in place to ensure that early
warning signs are recognized so that problem
merchants can be removed from a clearing institution's
program promptly to minimize loss exposure.
• In cases of merchants clearing large dollar volumes, a
clearing institution should establish an account
administration program that, at a minimum,
incorporates periodic reviews of the merchants'
financial statements and business activities.
• A clearing institution should establish an internal
periodic reporting system of merchant account
activities regardless of the amount or number of
transactions cleared, and these reports should be
reviewed for irregularities so that the Clearing
Institution alerts itself quickly to problematic merchant
activity.
• Clearing institutions should follow the guidelines that
are established by the card issuing networks.
Another possible problem with merchant activities involves
clearing institutions that sometimes engage the services of
agents, such as an independent sales organization (ISO).
ISOs solicit merchants' credit card transactions for a
clearing institution. In some cases, the ISOs actually
contract with merchants on behalf of clearing institutions.
Some of these contracts are entered into by the ISOs
without the review and approval of the clearing
institutions. At times, clearing institutions unfortunately
rely too much on the ISOs to oversee account activity. In
some cases, clearing institutions have permitted ISOs to
contract with disreputable merchants. Because of the poor
condition of the merchant, or ISO, or both, these clearing
institutions can ultimately incur heavy losses.
A financial institution with credit card clearing activities
should develop its own internal controls and procedures to
ensure sound agent selection standards before engaging an
ISO. ISOs that seek to be compensated solely on the basis
of the volume of signed-up merchants should be carefully
scrutinized. A clearing institution should adequately
supervise the ISO's activities, just as the institution should
supervise any third party engaged to perform services for
any aspect of the institution's operations. Also, it should
DSC Risk Management Manual of Examination Policies 3.2-25 Loans (12-04)
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation