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CU*Answers Announces Cost of Compliance Contest Winners

Tony Muka
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CU*Answers, data processor to nearly 200 credit unions nationwide, announced the winners of their first Cost of Compliance contest at its recent CEO Strategies Conference. Contest participants were tasked to create a template that provides a standard way of accounting for an institution’s overall costs associated with compliance related activities. “Nine credit unions participated in the contest and the decision to pick three was not an easy one,” said Randy Karnes, CU*Answers CEO. “Last year during this event you (CU CEOs) threw down the gauntlet as many stated the cost of compliance was killing you. CU*Answers took that as a challenge for the network and today I have the pleasure of giving you the tools to actually measure and quantify that statement in the future.” Karnes added.

Winners include:

  • 1st place of $2,500 – Pathways Financial Credit Union, Columbus, OH, submitted by Greg Kidwell
  • 2nd place of $1,500 – KALSEE Credit Union, Kalamazoo, MI, submitted by Amber Stevens
  • 3rd place of $1,000 – Internet Archive Federal Credit Union, New Brunswick, NJ, submitted by Jordon Modell

Winning templates can be viewed at http://auditlink.cuanswers.com/ .

The contest sponsored by AuditLink, CU*Answers compliance division, was announced at the Annual Leadership Conference in June and was open to all credit union CEOS and CFOs. “We have been hearing loud and clear at many of our CEO peer events that the cost of compliance is having a large and growing negative impact on credit union earnings,” said Jim Vilker, VP of Professional Services. “The goal is to create an overall template and implementation schema that credit unions can use that hopefully will become a standard across our industry. Just think if we as an industry began quantifying these costs and cooperatively sharing this information with members and industry leaders that would demonstrate the effects of this overreaching regulatory environment,” Vilker concluded.

A second contest, with another $5,000 in awards will begin January 1, 2015, and revolves around the application of the templates in a real world environment in which compliance expenses are actually accounted for and recognized on the expense statement. See contest details at
http://auditlink.cuanswers.com/wp-content/uploads/CostofComplianceFlyer.pdf.