How Effective is Your Compliance Program?

Analiese Fusner

Credit grantors and third party ARM firms alike are taking a closer look at their compliance procedures and systems. And with good reason. Though an already tight regulatory environment, the increased oversight from the CFPB makes compliance even more critical.

A strong, effective compliance program makes it more likely your employees will do the right thing, which, of course, mitigates risks, decreases potential lawsuits, and makes fines less likely.

Furthermore, the ability to demonstrate an effective compliance program makes an exceptional defense if misconduct does occur. Additionally, federal guidelines indicate lower fines and other consequences for malfeasance at companies with documented compliance programs and corporate cultures of ethics.

Knowing you need to create an effective compliance program is one thing. Knowing HOW is entirely another.

Based on federal sentencing guidelines in consideration with other agency best practices, we here at RevSpring consider an effective compliance and ethics program to include most, if not all, of the following recommended elements:

• High level oversight
• Risk assessment
• Standard of conduct – policies and procedures
• Training and education
• Open lines of communication (hotline)
• Monitoring and auditing
• Response to detected deficiencies
• Consistent corrective action

Does your current compliance program include these elements, and if so, are they addressed in ways that are most advantageous to your organization and employees?

In the following series of upcoming blog posts for RevSpring’s Accelerate Revenue blog, we delve deeper into these eight key elements with the intent of helping your organization strengthen your current compliance program.