Bolster Your Business Continuity Plan

A sound management system can minimize business disruption in your compliance program in three ways. ​

Business continuity is all about minimizing business disruption. And in today’s world, it’s nearly impossible to do so without the right technology. Specifically, a sound compliance management system can minimize business disruption in your compliance program in three ways.

Support succession planning

A comprehensive compliance management system simplifies mitigating succession risk. It does so with features such as:

• User friendly dashboards that paint the real-time status of compliance at the credit union upon log-in
• Reports that indicate where upcoming changes can be tracked to keep the credit union abreast of what’s coming, what’s due, what’s on track and what’s falling behind
• Drill-down functionality that takes you to the work being done without fumbling to find files

When your compliance function is centralized, leaders can identify the status of compliance in real time, get evidence reports and review change histories – and they don’t need any particular staff member to be on hand to do so. It’s all at your fingertips.

Provide and document education and training

Compliance management systems can also help lay out the “what” of compliance – no easy feat. They help you identify: 

• What laws and regulations apply to my credit union?
• What changes are occurring?
• What do we need to do annually?
• What regulations apply in which circumstances (e.g. advertising variables)?

Think about it this way: Can anyone in your credit union access federal and state content in easy-to-understand formats? Are you getting regular updates when a change to a law or regulation occurs? Do you have review tools that also teach various members of your staff what they need to know in order to comply?

A compliance management system deployed correctly can help with all of these risk-minimizing needs while also assisting users in understanding how regulatory requirements fit the operating environment of your credit union. 

Support collaboration and centralized access

Back in March 2020, when COVID first shut everything down and everyone went to remote work, what happened to your compliance efforts? Were you scrambling to figure out how to maintain your normal workload? If so, you’re not alone. 

Most premier compliance management systems are web-accessed/cloud based, which means you can access key information wherever you need to. Task management functionality can also allow your team to keep the compliance work going and have a handle on status in real time. If there’s a notification feature, all the better—important messages can go out to staff to keep you on track.

Want to learn more about how compliance management system technology can support business continuity efforts? Reach out and one of our compliance management specialists will be in contact to set up an assessment: www.cuna.org/get-cucms-plus

Today’s article was written by Tracy Blaske, Tracy Blaske, Instructional Design Manager at Credit Union National Association (CUNA), the only national association that advocates on behalf of all of America’s credit unions. CUNA works tirelessly to protect credit unions’ best interests in Washington and all 50 states.