OMAHA, Neb.-To free the compliance officer from staff questions and to improve compliance knowledge throughout the credit union, one CU has placed all of its compliance knowledge online.
Mutual 1st FCU has created the Compliance Connection, a site on the CU's intranet portal that not only allows credit union staff to access the knowledge and research of its compliance officer, but also lets the compliance team better archive the large amounts of information continues to be developed.
"The amount of work needed in the compliance area has exploded within the last six to 12 months," said Kelly Brown, Mutual 1st compliance team leader. "Feeling overwhelmed, I condensed all of my research into one central location, and it has been a blessing. That way I better organize my work and staff know where to go to get compliance information."
Brown estimated that the majority of the credit union's employees use the site, and that they access it at least once a week. "Compliance issues touch so many credit union areas. This gets everyone involved," she said.
It also keeps Brown from answering a lot of questions. "I spend much less time now providing answers and telling people where they need to go to find information." Brown estimated that before building her website she dedicated 30 hours each month to helping people with compliance answers, and lost another 50 re-researching work she already completed. "I did not have a good central location to organize all of my information."
Looking at her own salary, Brown thinks the website saves the $100-million CU $8,000 a year. "But where we benefit the most is in making me more effective at what I do," she said.
Information within the Compliance Connection is organized by regulation or rule, Brown explained. "Reg E, for example, has its own page. And within the page I have sections for each major area, like information that comes out from the leagues, the Federal Reserve, etc."
The Compliance Connection also helps Brown with training. "It was wonderful for Reg E," Brown shared. "After the training session I put my presentation information on the website and people knew exactly where to go if they had a question. They were even able to view the presentation before training-employees knew exactly what we were doing around Reg E-and came in better prepared."
Brown also runs compliance quizzes on the site and gives away small prizes to top scores. "Not only does this reinforce training, it tells me where staff may be weak so I can focus future training sessions on those subjects."
Passageways intranet portal technology supports the Mutual 1st intranet. Passageways is based in West Lafayette, Ind.
