To most speakers at the Western League of Savings Institutions' compliance conference here last week, risk management and regulations go together like Southern California and sunshine.
However, the conference's featured speaker isn't so certain.
JoAnn S. Barefoot, president of Barefoot, Marrinan & Associates consulting firm in Columbus, Ohio, said items like the Community Reinvestment Act and Bank Secrecy Act need to be seen as potential profit opportunities, not just as risks to be controlled.
"Compliance is being swept up in a risk management focus," Ms. Barefoot said in her keynote speech last week. "But I think that it's always going to fit uncomfortably in this area. Compliance isn't only about risk. It's also about creating business opportunities."
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The new Community Reinvestment Act rules don't require it, but a Federal Reserve official said bankers should generate their own demographic data to make their exams easier.
By developing the performance context - an in-depth study of the demographics of its community - a bank can help ensure its lending results are judged properly, said Joy Hoffman-Molloy, community affairs manager with the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
She emphasized banks don't have to provide the demographic data because the new rules place that burden on examiners. But Ms. Molloy said that an institution is missing a chance to help itself if it doesn't do its homework.
"Making your own performance context means that you can look at what the examiner has and argue it," Ms. Molloy said. "It can take a lot of fear out of the exam process."
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Another regulator has chosen a private firm to handle its Community Reinvestment Act data gathering and analysis.
The Office of Thrift Supervision will be using CRA Wiz, a data gathering and mapping product from PCI Services of Andover, Mass., to expedite its community reinvestment exams, according to an official at the conference.
Edwin Chow, assistant regional director at the thrift regulator's San Francisco office, said the product should allow examiners to more quickly and thoroughly analyze data. As a result, examiners should be able to do more work outside the bank during a review.
Officials said the agency is currently setting up training programs, and the product should be used in exams by May.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency also uses CRA Wiz. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. relies on CRA Analyzer from Tactician Corp. for its data analysis, while the Fed has not yet decided on a product.
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The Western League, like most conference sponsors, intended to give bankers big binders to collect reference materials, session outlines, attendee listings and more.
But the binders were sent mistakenly to the Hyatt Regency on Market Street in San Francisco, instead of the Hyatt Regency at Market Place in San Diego.
The binders finally arrived in the middle of the conference's final day.
