ABA Bank Compliance - September/October 2014

When the Saints Go Marching In

The popularity of the conference (over 1,700 attendees this year) means that it typically dominates the hotel meeting space, so sharing with other conferences is rare––but not this year.

This Hyatt managed to host not just the ABA we know and love, but also the other ABA… the American Bishops Association. Okay, it doesn’t really go by that name, but instead it goes by the United States Congress of Catholic Bishops (I can only hope for their sake they get more done than the regular U.S. Congress).

I wondered, what is it going to be like sharing a venue with these church officials? How quickly would either of us detect the mistake if we’d wandered into a session for the wrong conference? I quickly concluded that their all-black dress code would be an immediate tip-off for us, as well as the fact that there were no women in in their group (zero, zip, nada). Still, I think there are similarities between the bishops and us compliance professionals.

First, we both have a set of basic regulations.

(I’ve heard Mike Maher say many times that Moses was the first compliance officer, and while Moses only started with ten regulations, there are hundreds of pages of commentary that follow.) Secondly, we both answer to higher authorities who have the power to levy some very stiff penalties, sometimes bringing us literally to our knees.

On the flip side, there are some very distinct differences. With regards to fees, they seem pretty comfortable sticking with a standard ten percent, while we are getting more and more questions about how we’ve come up with ours.

Another difference is that banks also have expe-
rience with “confessions” to “the big regulator”
but ours are not necessarily kept confidential
(if only). Then there are those things that are
similar yet dissimilar. For example, both their
“executive management” and ours are most
often white-haired older men. It’s just that ours
(typically) don’t wear red dresses with match-
ing caps (not to mention their CEO who always
wears white, even after Labor Day).

In thinking about our sessions, I wondered, are the bishops also atwitter with monitoring social media for parishioner complaints? Could it be they had their own sessions on UDAAP (Undeserving Devilish And Abominable Penances?) And what about the bishops from Colorado and Washington where they now have legalized marijuana? Holy Smokes!

As the ABA conference wound down we were saying “halo” to arriving conference attendees from yet another religious group ( perhaps also looking for saints in New Orleans).

In parting, I wondered what the bishops had
thought of us compliance professionals who
serve as the saint-like “conscience” of financial
services? That was answered when a colleague,
Gene Shaffer, reported on his conversation with
one of the bishops while standing in line at
Starbucks. He queried, “How is it that a Catho-
lic Bishop’s conference and a Jehovah’s Witness
conference were scheduled at the same time, at
the same hotel?” The bishop’s reply was, “Worst
part is that there was a bankers’ conference here
too.” Ouch! Oh well, they say to forgive is di-
vine; too bad I’m only human. ■

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

STU LEHR, CRCM, is an industry
principal for Finacle, at Infosys
Technologies Ltd. For the 20-plus
years prior to this, he developed and
led compliance programs for a
number of banks and an online payments provider.
In addition, he has served on the ABA
Compliance Executive Committee, the ABA
Regulatory Compliance Conference Planning
Committee, and still serves on the faculty for the
ABA Compliance Schools. He earned the 2002 ABA
Distinguished Service Award and is a Certified
Regulatory Compliance Manager (CRCM) through
the ABA Institute of Certified Bankers. Reach him at
stu.lehr@gmail.com.