If only there were Life Hacks for compliance

If your childhood was anything like mine, your parents were terrified at the prospect of you leaving the nest before you knew the basics. Dicing an onion, fixing a flat tire, avoiding streaks on a mirror – these were the everyday tasks parents just had to teach their kids. Heaven forbid they grow into adults who couldn’t stop a faucet from leaking. Can you imagine the embarrassment?

Little did they know there’d be a wonderful invention called the Internet where even the most clueless among us could become an expert in minutes. Life Hacks, YouTube, all those how-to chat rooms – there’s a plethora of information available right at our fingertips.  And although my mom and dad did succeed in training me for the unexpected, I’m very grateful for the extra help. Just last week, an online instructional video saved my basement from flooding.

I’ve always wished for this kind of of-the-moment, at-the-fingertips information for compliance. After all, compliance training was not something moms and dads – nor even colleges and universities – could have prepared anyone for.  Wouldn’t it be great to have a nice online video, or instructional manual, when implement new requirements?

Until the day compliance becomes as easy as saving your house from a flood, there are some pretty reliable tools out there credit unions can find and use to ease their compliance tasks.  The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), for example, recently released four simple, online resources related to the upcoming Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) changes. Check them out:

• The CFPB developed a webinar, which it made available on YouTube. It will be part of a series that provides an overview of the final rule and key dates.
• The bureau has also released a transactional coverage chart to help determine whether a particular loan transaction (application, origination or purchase) is reportable.
• A sample data collection form from Appendix B of the final rule was also developed and distributed by the bureau.
• Lastly, the CFPB put together a technology preview of the new HMDA platform for credit unions to review, as well.

I would recommend taking a look at each of these to help with your implementation process. I know this information cannot literally show you how to implement new changes, like my life-saver plumbing video. But it will provide you with material to update your HMDA processes and provide helpful information for training your staff on the new changes.