Compliance can be fun, we promise

Guest post by Michael DeCarlo, Chief Compliance Officer at Medallion Bank

One does not typically combine compliance with mountain biking in the rain and mud.  Compliance is typically something that none but a few compliance officers think of as a “fun time”. There are so many new regulations in banking coming out, it’s hard to keep up and know that employees are doing everything necessary to be compliant.  Recently, I visited our Home Improvement office in Bothell, WA to observe and review their processes. I needed to see that they are making the necessary efforts to ensure compliance. Additionally, I wanted to find something fun to do with the team’s management as we got to know each other better.

Now, I could resort to listing each of the regulations we must follow one by one, but that would bore anybody to tears.  So let me take another approach: instead of thinking about compliance for compliance’s sake, let’s change the paradigm.

In today’s environment, unfair, deceptive or abusive acts can be such a gray area. Even if you are compliant with all the regulations, that’s not enough anymore. So instead of focusing only on individual regulations, it might be more effective to adjust your organization’s approach to customer service to make compliance less of an issue. If we treat those we do business with as we would want to be treated, compliance becomes a whole lot easier (even easier than mountain biking in rainy Seattle).

And of course, as a compliance officer, I certainly don’t want to treat fellow employees as suspects—that’s no environment for anyone to work in.  Instead, my hope is to relate to my fellow employees, work with them and help them make their daily efforts to serve our customers and contractors easier while still protecting the Bank from regulatory violations and fines.  Because at the end of the day, doing business should be fun…or why come to work?  To that end, I joined Sean and Justin for a fun mountain bike ride in the rain.  Hey, compliance officers don’t have to always be a stick in the mud!

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