Before you read this post, if you haven’t already, please take a few minutes and read my updates from Day 1 and Day 2 of my first ABA RCC. If you’ve picked up anything from the first two recaps that I’ve written it is likely that I am not a morning person, I hate the sound of forks scraping against plates and you know my face, but I probably don’t know your face.
Now that you are all up to speed, I started my final day at the RCC as you guessed it…EARLY! I attended a Power Hour session sponsored by RSM called “If You Paint By Numbers, What Does Your HMDA Data Reveal?”. It was moderated by Rod Farling and featured speakers Tisha Stelken, David Dowdney and Julia De France. There have been a lot of questions about the new data and EGRRCPA in the HMDA sessions that I have attended this week. As I mentioned yesterday, the consensus seems to be, “We don’t know”, “Everyone is in a holding pattern”, and “Don’t change anything right now!”. Please make sure that you are able to justify your data. They weren’t sure which data will be made public, but it seems they are giving you just enough rope to potentially hang yourself.
Now, we head back to the humongous ballroom for General Session for a presentation on AI and Compliance with Jo Ann Barefoot of Barefoot Innovation Group. JoAnn told a story about a TechSprint (also known as a hackathon, but that word is a little scary for banks and government agencies) that the Financial Conduct Authority hosted last year. At this TechSprint, a group of coding professionals were able to take a regulatory handbook and convert it to a programming language that machines could understand. From there, the computer was able to pull needed information directly from the institution in 12 seconds. This is just one example of the places that FinTech may be heading. If you’re familiar with Moore’s Law, which states that computing power doubles each year, computing power has actually grown by 1 billion times. Yes, that is with a “b” and that is over the last 50 years. Where will we be in a decade? Once Jo Ann wrapped up her presentation, she brought on Yvette Hollingsworth Clark the Executive VP and Regulatory Innovation Officer at Wells Fargo for a discussion about RegTech. There is a thought in the industry that RegTech will help the big banks shoot ahead of community banks, but Yvette believes that is not the case. She stated that the sheer amount and increased complexity of data held by big banks will force them to roll out in stages. This leaves an opportunity for smaller community banks to move faster. However, while that seems to be wonderful to hear in theory, my question is, will community banks have the resources to implement future RegTech before big banks move further ahead?
Following our General Session, it was time for a “coffee break” in the Marketplace. I made a quick stroll through the booths for what I was sure would be my final time. It was pretty uneventful. I snagged a pastry on my way out just to hold me over until lunch.
My next session was “Creating a Compliance Digital Marketing Program” presented by Brian Jensen, Katherine Licup, Maureen Carollo and Renee Huffaker. This session spent a lot of time spent talking about compliance pitfalls in your company’s marketing programs, but what I found the most interesting was a type of marketing that I was not even aware of. I know a lot of people are “cutting the cord” when it comes to their television viewing habits, but many of you still have cable or satellite. Do you have a set top box provided to those companies? Did you know that they can use your demographic information AND your viewing habits stored on that box to push specific commercials directly to your screen while you are watching television? I didn’t. Obviously, you want to watch for UDAAP and privacy as they will always be subject to scrutiny. A big issue facing many compliance professional in regards to their advertising program is demographic targeting. Demographic targeting is a fairly essential piece of marketing, but you need to make sure that you aren’t excluding groups of individuals at the same time. If your online marketing program is targeted at individuals under the age of 55, you need to make sure you’re reaching the 55+ demographic in some other way. The strength of your CMS needs to move concurrently with the depth of your digital marketing program.
Lunch time! I made my way to the Marketplace for the absolute final time and got into line for the buffet style lunch. I’ll let you take another peak behind my curtain. I’m a picky eater (just ask my wife) and these types of lunches rarely work out for me. I found the couple of items that I felt like I could handle, found a seat and quickly polished them off. Lunch was quick, and I had a lot of time to kill, so I made the short walk down to Broadway just so I could see the Honky Tonks before I left the city. Everyone had always told me, “There are musicians everywhere on Broadway”, but I figured maybe a couple each block. Well, let me just tell you something, there are literally musicians EVERYWHERE on Broadway. You couldn’t walk by an establishment without seeing someone playing music. It was a pretty cool atmosphere.
When I returned from lunch and my little exploration of Broadway, I attended the “BSA/AML/CFT Regulatory Hot Topics” session delivered by Robert Rowe III, Lauren Kohr and Dan Stipano. They talked about a range of topics from the new CDD requirements, filing SARs, cannabis and sports betting. In the panel’s experience so far, the examiners really do want to work WITH you on these new CDD requirements. Also, they think it is a good idea to establish a relationship with your local SAR review team. One final note on this session…told me to tell you that Risk Assessment is the building block of your BSA compliance system.
Well, that’s the end of my day and the end of my first conference! Yes, I realize that there is another day, but I had prior requirements that precluded me from attending. Yes, I do realize that there was another session today after the last one that I attended. Who wants to leave Nashville at rush hour? Please don’t tell my boss that I skipped out early. Let’s just keep this between us!
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my first ABA Regulatory Compliance Conference, but I’m exhausted! I met so many wonderful people and learned more than I will likely be able to remember. I wanted to accomplish four things when I set out writing this series of blog posts;
- Be informative for those of you that could not attend;
- Show those who have never attended what the conference is really like;
- Help those of you that have attended for many years remember how you felt at your first conference; and
- Be entertaining!
Did I accomplish all of those things? I certainly hope so! Thanks for virtually walking along with me through my first conference.
Brent Vincent
Director of Operations
Compliance Resource, LLC