Financial institutions: economic abuse training.

Existing law establishes the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation in the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency, headed by the Commissioner of Financial Protection and Innovation. Under existing law, the commissioner and the department are charged with oversight and enforcement of various laws and financial institutions, including banks, trust companies, credit unions, finance lenders, and residential mortgage lenders. Existing law, the California Consumer Financial Protection Law, authorizes the commissioner, among other things, to develop and implement outreach and education programs to underserved consumers and communities. This bill would require the department, on or before January 1, 2025, to develop, implement, and administer a voluntary online training program for officers and employees of financial institutions, as defined, regarding the economic abuse of victims of domestic violence. The bill would require the online economic abuse training to include, among other components, instruction on the nexus between domestic violence and financial insecurity, and instruction on how to report and respond to economic abuse. The bill would require the department to work with survivors of domestic violence, nonprofit organizations, community groups, and other stakeholders in developing the training required by these provisions, and would require the department to make available on its internet website the training program in its entirety in a format of the department's choosing along with any other materials it deems relevant for the purposes of public education about the economic abuse of victims of domestic violence.