Pub. 5 2017 Issue 1

Issue 1. 2017 11 At every single institution, regulatory compliance sits near the top of the list as a major strategic issue that banks must be able to consistent- ly manage – but that constantly leaves them feeling behind the eight ball in terms of cost and confidence. That’s why Harrington began to leverage his team, which works with high-tech clients like Microsoft and Adobe, to develop an economical and scalable solution that would give banks confidence and direction in their compliance training. The mantra for the team is “Help them figure out what they don’t know.” Harrington’s team refers to their platform as, “A testing management system built for today’s world.” It’s a phrase that was birthed from a vision to deliver a fully modernized system to an industry encumbered by paper envelopes, stacks of files and fax machines. Faster, more powerful and more insightful – that’s the promise of Compliance Today. Compliance officer pain points We all know too well that managing federal mandates has become a particular pain point for compliance officers since the Banking Secrecy Act. Last year, for example, several big and some small banks generated headlines when they were hit with large civil money pen- alties, ranging frommore than $2 billion for a large interstate bank to $4,500 for an individual bank officer. Of course, with new administration comes new hope for regulatory relief. With the election of President Trump and Republican major- ities in the House and Senate, unravelling Dodd-Frank has moved from “wish list” item for banks to “potential political reality.” Even with the hope of deregulation on the horizon, the reality is that those efforts will require extremely careful planning and implementa- tion – and we will still have significant regulatory constraints. Banks will continue to operate in a regulated environment that will place demands on employees at all levels to consistently operate within the lines. Some of the key compliance areas on which the tests will focus include: BSA, Fair Lending, Privacy, Regulation CC, Regulation D, Flood, Regulation O, Regulation E, RESPA, Regulation Z, and UDAAP. With that in mind, Compliance Today is posed to be a game changer for banks in three major areas. The first is the ability to verify that employees understand and can apply necessary compliance standards every time. Unlike the traditional “test and train” model, this testing platform gives you an unbiased perspective on your staff’s understanding of each piece of critical regulation that applies to their area of the bank. By aligning your banks’ insights into employee knowledge with fed- eral regulation standards, banks will be able to rest easy knowing that their talent is operating under federal guidelines with the customers’ best interests at the top of mind. Even better – it does all of that with lightning quick speed and intuitive user interfaces that make taking the test and evaluating the results simple but incredibly effective. Second, when it comes to auditing, the reports generated by the Com- pliance Today platform will improve compliance audits and ongoing personnel development. The platform allows banks to set the bar for its employees, test their knowledge, discover areas for improvement and produce individual, department and bank-wide independent compliance reports. On top of that, when gaps are identified, the plat- form will suggest relevant learning resources to ensure your organiza- tion is a leader in compliance. Finally, the platform gives banks the opportunity to assess the effec- tiveness of compliance education efforts, along with the ability to review your own bank’s performance in comparison to aggregated data from hundreds of other banks. Create independent reports For the first time, banks can have instant, independent reports that show you how well your compliance education is delivering on a day-to-day basis. That doesn’t mean your bank’s data is ever shared with other institutions; instead, the system provides you anonymized, data-drive benchmarking to help you tailor your compliance training efforts so that your bank never falls behind the pack. Perhaps the biggest value point of Compliance Today is that the plat- form requires no previous knowledge to set up or use. An administra- tor at the bank can simply add, manage and assign users to tests, send emails, review scores and analytics, make payments and even submit course feedback all from one convenient location. From the moment the platform is live, you’ll have independent re- ports generated for your employees and at aggregate levels that can be shown to examiners. Administrators don’t have to build from scratch or work through complex data sets; they can add, change and revise as needed in moments. These tests are written by former examiners. They are reviewed by compliance attorneys and former examiners. The administrative fea- tures allow you to get the tests you need directly to the right employ- ees; results and reporting are automatic. The tests offer a clean and elegant interface; easy to use with very little clutter. You simply buy what you need; no subscriptions or ongoing charges. Regulation isn’t getting easier for our banking clients. It’s requiring more education at every level and every department and regulators are demanding proof points that what banks are doing is actually having an impact. That creates a lot of concern about cost and scale with no clear answer. “I don’t think there is anything like Compliance Today in the United States, so, once again, we are at the forefront of helping bankers with their compliance needs,” said Utah Bankers Association President & CEO Howard Headlee. Be on the lookout for additional information about Compliance Today and how to sign up. n Jackson Hataway, Ph.D., a senior consultant at Extreme Arts & Sciences who works heavily in the financial services industry Ever wondered how great it would be to get a baseline knowledge assessment of your bank’s compliance awareness?