Compliance Blog

As a compliance officer, I'm sure you spend a good deal of time putting out fires.  Things pop up, and you deal with them.  Sort of like that whack-a-mole game at the carnival.  Only not as fun.

Here's an article from Michael Baroni, writing for Inside Counsel, that urges in-house attorneys to change their focus, as much as possible.

Me? I’d prefer to build a reputation as the “disaster prevention department.” Risk will always be there. It’s our job as in-house counsel to make our business colleagues understand that fact. How you plan for risk and deal with it when it flares up makes all the difference to your company.

While Mr. Baroni writes to an audience of general counsels, his advice is still useful for compliance officers.  Sure, we fix problems.  But the more proactive we can be in preventing problems, the more useful we'll be for our credit union.  (There's another reason I like reading Mr. Baroni's columns: he is the only attorney for his company.  As such, he is responsible for...well, everything.  Much like a credit union compliance officer.)

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The January 2008 BSA Blast is available.  You may access it here.  (NAFCU member log-in needed.)