Compliance Blog

There's an interesting phenomenon going on in the land of sports radio.  I call it the "Mount Rushmore" discussion.  Radio show personalities ask listeners who they would include on a Mount Rushmore for (insert random sport or team).  Let's say you're a baseball fan.  Who would be on the baseball version of Mount Rushmore?  Hank Aaron?  Babe Ruth? 

It sounds simple.  But be careful.  You only get to name four.  The exercise forces you to eliminate a lot of fluff. 

So, what would be on the Mount Rushmore of Compliance Resources?  Here's my list:

1. NCUA's rules and regulations homepage.   The rules and regulations homepage is a great place to start.  From that page, you have access to the Federal Credit Union Act, proposed regulations, IRPS, recently issued final rules, and more. 
2. The Federal Reserve's Alphabet Soup page.  Reg Z.  Reg B.  Reg U.  This page links to them all.  And from this page, you can also quickly find proposals and other useful resources.
3. NCUA's search engine, which is powered by Google.  You can search the entire website, or using the drop-down menu, you can limit searches to legal opinion letters, FOIA decisions, and other specific databases.  This is a gold mine.  It captures things that you might miss, such as a review of the NCUA Examiner's Manual, model bylaws, Regulatory Alerts, and more.

4. Your phone.  At some point, all the research in the world will not help you.  Sometimes, you just have to talk with someone who knows.  Here's a classic example.  You get a form from some government body that you must complete.  But it appears that the instructions were written by a group of third-graders.   In those cases, find out where the form goes after you complete it.  And call that office.  On the other end, you'll find a nice lady or gentleman who works with the form 5 days a week.  They'll know the answer to your question.  And if you want your credit union's name left out of the equation, use your cell phone, use a deep, husky voice, and say you are calling from a bank.  No one will be the wiser.

(Other things that almost made my cut were: strong coffee, a healthy sense of humor, and an ability to read relatively boring documents for relatively long periods of time.)

What's on your Mount Rushmore of Compliance Resources?  Feel free to leave a comment.