Wolters Kluwer Financial Services has  announced that Bryce Stephens, section chief for Compliance Analytics & Policy in the Office of Research, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, will speak about the development of the proxy methodology for race and ethnicity used in financial lenders’ compliance efforts at the 18^th annual CRA & Fair Lending Colloquium, Nov. 2-5 at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel and Marina.

Along with Stephens, more than 70 federal regulators, attorneys, bank compliance officers and other industry experts are scheduled to speak to an expected crowd of more than 500 attendees at this year’s Colloquium, hosted by Wolters Kluwer Financial Services. Since its inception in 1996, the Colloquium has grown to become a prominent forum for insights in navigating the increasingly complex regulatory and risk management challenges facing financial institutions today.

Stephens will discuss the development and construction of the CFPB’s Bayesian Improved Surname Geocoding (BISG) methodology, which enables financial institutions to proxy for unidentified race and ethnicity in non-mortgage lending practices such as credit card, student loans, and auto loan applications.

The CFPB published a white paper earlier this year explaining the proxy methodology in conjunction with a CFPB study on the topic. The Bureau described this integrated approach to building a proxy as “more accurate than either surname or geographic data individually." 

Stephens is currently working on issues related to fair lending, privacy and confidentiality, and statistical disclosure limitation methodologies. Prior to joining the CFPB, he was a manager with the economic consulting firm Bates White, where he focused on issues related to employment discrimination, product liability, and consumer finance.

Wolters Kluwer Financial Services has worked to incorporate the CFPB’s proxy methodology into its Wiz® software offerings and has begun working with financial organizations to test and use the methodology in their fair lending analyses.

Sponsors of the 2014 Colloquium include the American Bankers Association, Independent Community Bankers of America, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.