A Different View

Written by Anthony Demangone

Since I became NAFCU’s Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, I’ve received the same question from a number of compliance officers.

Anthony, has your view of compliance changed due to your new role at NAFCU?

Being both an attorney and a compliance officer (I’m still an NCCO, and that’s not going to change), you probably can guess my answer.

Yes and no.

Let me tackle the “no” part first.  I still see compliance as vital.  Life has rules, and we must play by them.  Organizations that do not respect internal controls, the rule of law, the role of regulation or the importance of consumer protection are playing with fire.  Compliance officers and internal auditors are the ultimate fire prevention tool.  For this reason, my view of compliance hasn’t changed a bit.

Now, onto the “yes.”

My new role has given me a new respect for the term “information overload.”  I have an open calendar, so anyone in NAFCU can schedule a meeting with me.  I have responsibilities that touch our budget, events, facilities, computer system, staff, membership, benefits…you get the idea. 

Days fill up quickly, and I just don’t have the time I once did to research issues.  This experience has shown me that there are five ways you can really help yourselves as compliance officers.

1. Bone up on your communication skills.  If you can present information concisely and persuasively, you’ll go a long way toward achieving your goals. 
2. Think globally about your credit union.  If you recommend staff-wide training, understand that this will cost money and/or take staff away from their jobs.  The more you can think globally to maximize the return on any investment or to minimize costs as you implement solutions, the better you’ll be. And to think globally, you’ll need to understand your credit union from top to bottom.
3. Options.  There’s more than one way to grill a steak.  (My wife likes cats.) Talk about alternatives, and how those alternatives will affect the credit union’s risk profile, budget, morale and anything else that comes to mind.  Again, think globally, and you’ll be rewarded.
4. Understand statistics, PowerPoint, and Excel.  There’s power in math.  Understanding numbers and the use of statistics are two ways to make a point.  And being fluent in PowerPoint and Excel will allow you to communicate large ideas in a single chart or graph. Hiring a new compliance officer may seem like a bad idea, unless you can show a chart that shows how your credit union pays, on average, $250,000 each year on outside counsel for compliance matters and board training.
5. Come with solutions.  Roughly 50 issues that need a decision come across my desk every day.  The more you can provide a recommended solution to an issue, the better you’ll be.  There’s nothing better than seeing an e-mail that alerts me to a problem, but lays out how we’ve already addressed the issue. 

So there you have it.  My thoughts on compliance haven’t changed.  Except for where they aren’t the same. 

 Keep up the good fight guys.

***

And now, here are the mandatory twin photos.

 Ms. Kate, having fun.

Here’s Briggs, after I told him the Penn State/Alabama football score.

And here’s why we all need to act like kids a bit more in life!

Comments

[Ron Daly, President/CEO]

Great post Anthony! I’ve recently ran across conversations of how Compliance Officers are also looking for ways to make Compliance a profit center. i.e. finding ways for their organization to save money based on recommendations derived from the Compliance Team. For example, are there paper disclosures that are printed over and over again due to regulatory changes that can be switched to electronic delivery? Are there ways for the CU to GO Green and still comply with eSign? How about disclosures and daily notices that are printed and mailed that are more a “courtesy” than a required mailing?

Granted not everything from Compliance will save money but just find one big way to save $$$, make the recommendation with estimate of how much the organization will save and watch management’s attitude change as compliance helps improve the bottom line in these tough times.

[Anthony Demangone (The old guy)]

Great point, good sir. The more that anyone, including compliance, can think in those terms, the better off an organization would be.