Credit Union Gets Regulator-Ready with a Compliance Management System Assessment

How Bridgeforce helped a federally chartered credit union build confidence and get regulator-ready with a Compliance Management System assessment

What Happens When a Regulator Requests to See Your Compliance Management System?

A federally chartered credit union with over $15 billion in assets sought to evaluate its compliance management system (CMS) for potential improvements.

The credit union needed a CMS review for various reasons, primarily due to a regulator’s review request. With the credit union expanding, regulatory expectations were mounting. An assessment was essential to identify any flaws in their framework that might impact their oversight.

Bridgeforce’s assessment of the credit union’s CMS adequately prepared them for regulatory review – complete with new enhancements that fostered confidence across the organization.

Bridgeforce’s Trusted Advisory was Needed for a Full Assessment of the Compliance Management System

The credit union re-engaged us, having previously relied on Bridgeforce for trusted advisory services. When working with them previously, we reviewed their CMS and formed a good understanding of how they operated. This time, a team of Bridgeforce advisors were brought back to ensure that recent additions to the CMS were formal, robust and well-documented for future growth.

Bridgeforce Guides the Credit Union to Regulatory Preparedness in Three Steps

Our approach was simple: divide the project into three components to guide the client towards regulatory preparedness.

• Start with a risk assessment of the current CMS to point out vulnerabilities or shortcomings.
• Design (alongside the client) a roadmap for ongoing future sustainability. The roadmap provides a priority framework. The framework checks against regulatory risk and organizational structure when the credit union wants to add new features and amend current functions.
• Present findings, recommendations and roadmap to the decision makers to greenlight CMS changes.

Close Coordination and Careful Analysis Makes a Deep CMS Review Successful

During the project’s kickoff activities key client stakeholders met with Bridgeforce’s project team to review expectations and hand over process documents to help us understand how the current CMS operated.

The client worked closely with us and participated in many interviews as we gathered the necessary details to enhance our understanding.

All findings were recorded in our proprietary CMS assessment matrix. An integral part of any CMS project, our matrix is grounded in the CFPB exam guide to ensure the highest level of compliance.

Bridgeforce Provides Needed Improvements for Regulatory Preparedness

After three months, we had analyzed more than 200 procedures in only 15 working sessions. Bridgeforce staff concluded the project with an executive presentation that outlined our assessment along with a roadmap for further enhancements.

The client had this to say: “I was very pleased with the engagement and the partnership between Bridgeforce and [ourselves]. [Bridgeforce] identified and shared numerous improvement opportunities that our team needed to hear and learn.”

With recommendations and the enhancement roadmap in-hand, the client felt completely prepared to show off their CMS to regulators and other required entities.

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