Recruiting Top Talent for Your Compliance and Secondary Marketing Departments
Only with the right talent can a credit union increase its returns and remain competitive. But how does your CU recruit top-tier team members when their services are in such demand everywhere, but in particular in the sought- after compliance realm?
The credit union system in the United States continues to experience steady growth in members and assets. According to the National Credit Union Association, as of March 31, 2015 there were 6,206 credit unions serving 99,969,794 consumers and member businesses. Together, these credit unions hold in excess of $1.1 trillion in assets. As credit unions continue to look for ways to increase returns and be competitive while effectively managing operating costs and remaining compliant, hiring the right talent and doing so efficiently is critical. This article briefly touches upon two specific areas of operations: compliance and secondary marketing.
Compliance
Today’s credit unions are confronted with the increasingly daunting task of providing robust and convenient access to member services in the most secure way possible. Each year the effort to manage complex systems intensifies as credit unions struggle with the burden of compliance and the need to strengthen the integrity of their infrastructure. It seems as though new regulations and changes to existing rules and regulations occur almost daily, requiring credit unions to create numerous policies and procedures to ensure compliance and to document adequate internal controls.
The qualifications and competencies required for compliance employees can be challenging for credit unions seeking to make new hires. Critical skills for a chief compliance officer include a comprehensive understanding of current laws, regulations and rules along with the ability to stay fully informed of any pending regulatory changes and how they will impact the credit union industry. Compliance officers must also be able to develop, administer and monitor policies and procedures that ensure compliance with laws, regulations and rules as well as identify and resolve deficiencies in the area of compliance throughout the organization.
As the implementation of rules generated by laws such as the Dodd-Frank Act, among others, continues to reshape the regulatory landscape, credit unions need to employ competent professionals that can assess risk and insulate themselves from falling out of line with regulatory requirements. This has led to strong competition for compliance professionals, who are also highly sought after by the banking industry.
Secondary Markets
Ideally credit unions fund loans with member deposits. However, demand for funding that exceeds their capacity to hold mortgages in their portfolio, along with being able to offer competitive mortgage products and pricing, requires involvement in the secondary market for mortgages. The mortgage volume any individual credit union is funding and what that CU’s plans are for future growth can help determine to what degree a secondary marketing or capital markets department should be staffed.
Just as there are many different ways in which a secondary marketing department can be structured – from entities that run a simple secondary desk handling transactions on a flow basis to robust capital market departments that have complex hedging strategies and a variety of delivery options available – there is also a wide spectrum of talent to pull from. A key component to staffing in this area is to ensure that the experience and abilities of the candidate are truly in line with the employer’s current platform and any anticipated evolution thereof.
A solid secondary marketing or capital markets manager has the ability to dramatically impact the bottom line of a mortgage department, and the capability to source key individuals is critical to achieving the best returns possible.
Conclusion
The demand for talent in the area of compliance is extremely strong, and finding a right fit for your secondary marketing department can be challenging as well. That being said there are extremely talented individuals in each of these fields doing their jobs every day. They aren’t typically looking for a new job but they are open to exploring new opportunities. The challenge for hiring managers is finding this hidden talent. Using a professional recruitment firm to fill key positions with top talent can shorten the search time, speed up the hiring process and, in the long run, save
money.
Adam Consiglio is a Managing Member of Consiglio-Mattei Executive Search Group LLC, an affiliate of executive recruitment franchise organization, MRINetwork. He has over 30 years of experience in various aspects of banking and mortgage lending and his search practice is focused on the mortgage and banking industries in the areas of compliance, secondary/ capital markets and production. To learn more about Consiglio-Mattei Executive Search Group visit www.cmsearchgroup.com.
-->Only with the right talent can a credit union increase its returns and remain competitive. But how does your CU recruit top-tier team members when their services are in such demand everywhere, but in particular in the sought- after compliance realm?
The credit union system in th...