Those Wacky Federales

[wintergreen48]

Things on the employment front are still looking bleak (two of the Richmond area Fortune 500 companies that would otherwise need attorneys with my skill set-- one of which actually planned to offer me a job-- filed for bankruptcy in December, and virtually all of the local corporate legal departments, and many of the law firms, are laying off attorneys right and left). I decided that it would be worthwhile for me to do some general legal consulting/contracting work, and I finally responded to one of the headhunters, and I got a consulting gig with a 'major financial institution' which, as it happens, turns out to be Capital One. I started with them last week, and I am sitting in the same building, on the same floor, just around the corner, from where I used to work. My severance is still continuing, so I am, for now at least, getting two paychecks, which is pretty cool.

The project on which I am working involves taking a lot of regulations and statutes and translating the legal requirements into something that more closely resembles English: it has occurred to management that it would be useful to have all the legal requirements with which they must comply written down someplace, so that, well, they can comply with them.

The Federal Reserve (which, after a ton of interviews and stuff, turned me down for a job, curse them, because I would not relocate to Washington DC-- once you've been in Richmond, you just can't go back to a dink town like DC) is revising a batch of the regulations that they administer, one of which is Regulation Z, the 'Truth in Lending' regulation, specifically, they are making huge modifications to the disclosure and other requirements that apply to open ended credit (i.e., credit cards, home equity lines, unsecured lines of credit, etc, in which Capital One is a major player). The revised regulations do not go into effect until next year, but Capital One (which we all know as 'Cap One,' which is really cool if you write it as one word and think about Chicago) needs to know what it will have to do so that it can start planning. Some of the changes are major, some are minor.

One of the minor changes provides that certain disclosures that used to have to be done in 18 point type can now be done in 16 point type: I suspect that this is a 'green' piece of regulation, since doing stuff in 16 point type rather than 18 point type will prevent global warning (by using less ink and paper). But the federales did more than just change the type size, they also provided that some disclosures do NOT have to be done in 16 point type. They specifically added the following exception (and I am not making this up): "The annual percentage rate for purchases disclosed pursuant to this paragraph shall be in at least 16-point type, except for the following: Oral disclosures of the annual percentage rate for purchases;.'

I am really pleased that they will not have to make oral disclosures in 16 point type; it will make it MUCH easier to do business, and training their customer service employees will be much simpler.

[gsabc]

Just keep remembering Bureaucratic Rule #1 - That which is not explicitly allowed is prohibited.

[themanintheseersuckersuit]

This job is probably on the same level with translating Latin.

[MarleysGh0st]

How does it feel being back at CapOne as an outside contractor, after being laid off as an employee?

[mcd1400de]

The Federal Reserve (which, after a ton of interviews and stuff, turned me down for a job, curse them, because I would not relocate to Washington DC-- once you've been in Richmond, you just can't go back to a dink town like DC) is revising a batch of the regulations that they administer, one of which is Regulation Z, the 'Truth in Lending' regulation, specifically, they are making huge modifications to the disclosure and other requirements that apply to open ended credit (i.e., credit cards, home equity lines, unsecured lines of credit, etc, in which Capital One is a major player). The revised regulations do not go into effect until next year, but Capital One (which we all know as 'Cap One,' which is really cool if you write it as one word and think about Chicago) needs to know what it will have to do so that it can start planning. Some of the changes are major, some are minor.

Reg Z is going to be a big pain in th..., um, a big part of my life as well for about the next year and a half or so.

But considering how much of the credit card industry is faring these days, I guess I should be only too happy to think of it as job security. Hey, wintergreen -- yeah, DC may be a dink town, but what about relocating to Wilmington?

[Bob Juch]

Congratulations! Contracting may be the way to go for a while. One of the two other contractors on my project used to work for CapOne in your building. He flies in and of of Philly each week from Cincinnati.