Will PCs Revolutionize Compliance (1996)

In the next few years, the way banks handle compliance will be transformed by technology. The process will attend staffing, risks, costs, and more. Banks need to develop long- and short-term technology plans for compliance that lay the groundwork for maximizing efficiency and minimizing expense as these changes evolve. This article is an overview of how technology will revolutionize the compliance function itself. My next article will look at how computerization of other bank functions will affect compliance. Tracking regulatory change Many banks already receive regulatory updates via CD-ROM or diskettes that contain the complete banking regulations. Updates typically come monthly. The regulatory databases can be scanned through keyword searches to find answers to questions more conveniently and reliably than using paper reference manuals. The update process is easier than to insert new pages and delete old ones from paper manuals. Within the next few years, most banks will get information about regulatory developments even more conveniently with on-line services. These will provide up-to-the-minute information on regulatory and legal changes, as well as advice and resources to make compliance easier. The ABA's Bankers Electronic Network (BEN) is pioneering this field now. Already there is an array of affordable information available on the Internet, from the Federal Register to World Wide Web pages. Some services (including BEN) will offer discussion groups and facilitated forums. In discussion groups, compliance officers will exchange questions and answers, suggestions, and frustrations. Some discussion groups will be managed by experts who add their advice and insights. The on-line forums are the equivalent of a seminar in cyberspace, in which an expert speaker presents material, and the participants ask questions on-line, with everyone able to see the questions and answers. While not fully replicating the benefits of in-person training, these forums will enable users to get access to top experts, including the chance to ask questions. [Jo Ann Barefoot will host such sessions on BEN.] Planning suggestions: * Get your compliance officer onto an on-line service soon to develop baseline knowledge. Also encourage compliance and other staff to become conversant with these systems through at-work or home computers. * Evaluate the available gateways to the Internet. Your state bankers association may be a current or planned gateway through BEN. You can also access information on the Internet through Compuserve, America Online, or Prodigy, or use one of the many specialty access vehicles that provide Internet access. Most banks that have not begun this will find it is much easier than they think, and amazingly inexpensive. * Begin to think through how you will distribute information to staff via the computer. Try to identify pass-through information you can share with all staff as is, without having to create something unique to your bank. Lay the foundation of hardware, software, and training needed for networking everyone who will eventually require access. Computer-based training comes of age Technology now makes it possible to use the computer as a powerful training tool conveying material designed to be interesting and useful in computer format. Its strengths include the ability to train just one person at a time effectively; to let each person learn at his/her own speed and on a personalized schedule; to provide tailored training modules and degrees of depth for specific job types and levels of experience; to update training easily and cheaply; and to test for knowledge and get an automatic record of mastery of material. And amazingly, computers even have the potential to make compliance less boring. If you go to your local computer mart today, you will get (for less than you would have paid several years ago for a plain, green-screen IBM clone), a dazzlingly versatile machine prepackaged with CD-ROM that includes video and audio. …