Editorial: How To Make Your Compliance Team Best In Class

Originally posted on CUinsight.com.

Written by Elizabeth M. Young LaBerge, NCCO, NCRM, CIPP/US, Senior Regulatory Compliance Counsel, NAFCU.

If you’re a credit union compliance professional struggling to keep up with the CFPB’s ongoing mortgage rule updates, you have plenty of company. The Truth in Lending Act (TILA) and Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) integrated mortgage disclosures (TRID) rule has undergone amendment after amendment since it was first finalized in 2013. The most recent, dubbed the “TRID fix” rule, makes a number of clarifications and technical corrections that have a required compliance deadline of Oct. 1, 2018. The mortgage servicing rules have been similarly amended since 2013, getting more byzantine year after year. Complex new requirements for borrowers in bankruptcy go into effect April 18, 2018.

These mortgage rules, in all their complexity, would be more than enough to keep any credit union compliance shop busy year-round, but it is just one part out of the volumes that feed into a credit union’s daily compliance obligations. Large or small, credit unions need a knowledgeable and skilled compliance team in place.

Credit unions are working to make that happen. In a survey NAFCU conducted for its 2017 Report on Credit Unions, respondents reported a 114 percent increase in the number of full-time-equivalent staff members devoted to their institutions’ “total compliance activities” since 2010. A majority of respondents – 87 percent – said they think they will need to increase that number further.

We see evidence of that trend, with the NAFCU Certified Compliance Officer (NCCO) program on track soon to reach 1,000 NCCO certifications of credit union compliance professionals.

About two-thirds of those certifications were earned during attendance at NAFCU’s Regulatory Compliance School, and registration is open now for both 2018 locations: the spring session, slated March 19-23 in Arlington, Va., and the fall session, Oct. 8-12 in San Antonio, Texas.

No compliance officer can carry the entire code of federal regulations around in her head. A strong compliance officer is someone who can recognize a potential issue and has the skills to research federal requirements, assess risk and provide useful guidance to the credit union’s business areas.

A best-in-class compliance team has the benefit of training and experience, and the NCCO program is designed to provide compliance staff with the depth and breadth of education needed to make its members successful. We have a robust program ahead, designed to provide newcomers and seasoned professionals alike a foundational understanding of the credit union regulatory compliance environment, with a deeper dive into specific compliance areas, including TRID as well as the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, Americans With Disabilities Act, fair credit reporting, equal credit opportunity rules, the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, Military Lending Act, Bank Secrecy Act and more.

The NAFCU regulatory compliance team will be there as well, delivering educational content, answering questions and making sure attendees understand the full range of resources and assistance available to them when they return to their credit union.

If you’re planning to go, sign up early – you’ll save $300 on registration until Jan. 5 using the HOLIDAY code. Need more time? Save $200 on the spring session in Arlington by using code SCHOOLSAVINGS by Jan. 26, or on the fall session in San Antonio with code FALLSAVINGS18 by Aug. 10.

I hope to see you there!