NAFCU Services Blog

By: Ann Davidson, VP of Risk Consulting at Allied Solutions.

Many financial institutions in 2016 began picking up their efforts to build more robust risk management strategies. Creating a collaborative, cross-departmental risk strategy has proven to be a great way to manage fraud risk. Watch the full webinar to learn more: Collaboration is Key to Manage Fraud Risk.

One strategy your credit union may want to adopt is to create a risk culture awareness program that will help your financial institution better monitor, identify, and manage potential fraud activity.

What is a Risk Culture Awareness Program?

A risk culture awareness program is an ongoing initiative managed by leaders within your credit union to encourage enterprise-wide awareness of fraud and financial loss threats, so every member of your staff is better equipped to quickly and effectively detect and address these threats. Such programs include creating a fraud investigation unit to centralize the management of these risks, or adopting an enterprise risk management strategy that includes fraud mitigation.

What are the steps an organization should take to implement a risk culture awareness program?

1. Develop the foundational changes that will encourage this new culture of risk awareness.
2. Apply these new organizational changes and the risk culture awareness program.
3. Measure the impact of these changes to determine if they were effective.
4. Apply any necessary changes to the risk culture awareness program.
5. Adjust your risk culture awareness program as needed to meet the evolving needs of your organization and address current risks.

There is something to say about knowing your entire staff is doing their best to help ward-off fraud before it happens. There is also the added bonus of being able to tell your account holders all the hard work you are putting in to help keep their information and money protected – which will inevitably lead to good things for your organization. No matter where 2017 takes you, know that there is much to offer in the way of risk awareness and prevention.

Listen to a more in-depth discussion about how your compliance team and your risk management teams can work together to mitigate risk by watching the full webinar here: Collaboration is Key to Manage Fraud Risk 

 

Allied Solutions is the NAFCU Preferred Partner for Insurance—Bond, Creditor Placed (CPI), Guaranteed Asset Protection (GAP), and Mechanical Breakdown Protection (MBP); and rateGenius. Learn more at www.nafcu.org/allied.