Compliance news, industry thought leadership, and updates, plus a chance to help your peers with your compliance know-how.
   

Welcome to the premiere issue of TRUPOINT Partners' monthly Smart Compliance newsletter. We'll be creating these newsletters with all of you savvy compliance pros in mind.

"March Madness" in Basketball and Compliance

A Note from Trey Sullivan, TRUPOINT Partners' Founder and CEO

As March Madness draws to a close this week, it brings to mind a lesson I learned when I played basketball as a kid.  I learned that while it's important to know where the ball is, it's almost more important to anticipate where the ball will be.  You've got to anticipate, trust your team and know your opponent to win - this is true in basketball and compliance.

In basketball and compliance, teams that have both a strong offense and a solid defense tend to win.  Winning teams are offensively proactive and defensively responsive.  A compliance team with a proactive offense understands its risk, conducts effective compliance training, and constantly monitors for potential issues.  A compliance team with a strong, responsive defense effectively mitigates risks and promptly eliminates issues when identified. 

For the compliance professional, it can sometimes seem like the regulators are your opponent.  In reality, they're just the refs.  Your real opponent is apathy (and of course, non-compliance).

We know that "winning" in compliance isn't easy and requires preparation.  In our experience, lenders that are proactive and responsive tend to have the strongest compliance programs.  If you know the ball is coming to you - in compliance, an exam - you need to be ready. We say it frequently: we're on your team, and we're ready when you are.

What's New at TRUPOINT Partners

It's been a big month at TRUPOINT Partners. So what happened?

  • New Place: We moved! Our new address is 4824 Parkway Plaza Blvd., Suite 130, Charlotte, NC 28217. We’re poised for growth, and this new Charlotte office is the perfect space for it.

  • New Awards: Our partnership with ISGN to offer the CFPB Compliance RiskCheck™ (CCRC) has won another award: the Inovations! Award from PROGRESS in Lending.

  • New Products: We’re rolling out UDAAP RiskCheck™ soon, so be on the lookout for news. If you want to be the first to get updates about the upcoming UDAAP RiskCheck™, click here >>

  • New Web Site Design: We launched a newly designed site with a cleaner look and enhanced functionality. Check it out, and tell us what you think!

Reading List

Great articles, resources, and shoutouts from around the web, plus our most popular post.

Industry Thought Leadership

  • Compliance Risk Investment to Grow: An interesting article by ABA Banking Journal's John Ginovsky, full of stats about compliance concerns, priorities, and spending in 2013 and 2014.
  • Shared Purpose Drives Collaboration: An article from Vineet Nayar at HBR about the value of using a shared sense of purpose to motivate teams.
  • Mortgage Remake: Lisa Valentine, also of the ABA Banking Journal, investigates the effects of the CFPB's Ability-to-Repay and Qualified Mortgage Rule.

TRUPOINT in the News

Our Most Popular Post This Month

Best Practice - HMDA

Top 4 Things To Do After Filing HMDA

A few dates loom large for compliance teams nationwide and March 1st is one. Best practice organizations will use the HMDA submission to launch into the next phase of their annual HMDA journey. Will you?

Help Your Neighbor Out

What's your best advice for this common compliance dilemma?

Every month, we'll focus on a common compliance dilemma submitted by a reader. Share your advice, and you could win a $25 gift card. This month's dilemma is based on comments we've heard:

"We're a community bank and we've isolated some of our major compliance weaknesses. However, we're having trouble getting enough momentum from the team to make real company-wide changes. What should our first step be, and how can we get the entire office motivated to think about Fair Lending compliance?"

Can You Help? Show What You Know.

Share your advice and you could win a $25 gift card from Amazon.

Got a dilemma? You can submit it here, too.

Something Light

Every month, we'll bring you a funny quote, video, cartoon or idea. 

It's springtime! With that in mind, we'll leave you with a quip from The Late Show with David Letterman:

"Noah is a blockbuster of a movie with a lot of surprises. Two days out and Noah realized he's allergic to lion dander." - David Letterman, April 2

Thanks for reading this month's Smart Compliance newsletter. We hope you loved it. Got ideas for how to improve? We're all ears. Forward it to your friends so that they can subscribe!

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