Compliance Requirements
Tonia Brown, VP of Compliance at First Credit Services joins the Contact Center KPI Podcast to talk all about compliance.
With a background in first-party, third-party, deby buying, and debt brokering, Tonia has seen a little bit of everything in the compliance world.
She gives you five requirements you must have when it comes to building your compliance standards.
Key takeaways from Tonia Brown
1. You need a knowledgeable compliance person who stays up to date on all of the regulatory changes.
This might seem like a no-brainer, but many organizations assign this to a group of people.
Tonia suggests having one person who owns this area as it is crucial to not let any new regulations slip through the cracks.
2. A Compliance Management System (CMS) is a must have.
You need a single system that houses all of your policies, procedures, and reporting so you know exactly what is expected of your compliance team.
If you’re a smaller company, this doesn’t need to be robust as there are plenty of systems out there to choose from.
3. Executive leadership and oversight should be a priority.
Executive leadership needs to hold the head of compliance responsible for either meeting or exceeding those expectations set up in your CMS.
When it comes to compliance, oversight is not a bad thing. More eyes on what is expected, the level of risk the company has, and the plan to mitigate that risk, will only help your company.
4. Documented policies and procedures in your CMS.
This is where teamwork comes in. You should not expect one person to come up with all of your company’s policies and procedures. A compliance person won’t be the most knowledgeable when it comes to accounting processes.
Your compliance team should work together with other departments to produce and train employees on these documented policies and procedures.
5. You must have an internal audit process.
No company wants to have a regulator or client be the one to find a hole in your processes.
Your organization should be proactive in testing out all policies and procedures to find where any potential risk lies and give a thorough risk level assessment to leadership.
Then the compliance team is responsible for figuring out how those risks will be mitigated going forward.
