January 2018 Update:
New Year Means New Requirements
We saw a lot of regulatory changes in 2017, and it looks like changes will keep coming throughout 2018. With all the new leadership and policy changes happening at the regulatory agencies, keeping track of regulatory compliance can get complicated. Our platform helps you stay current with regulatory changes and helps financial institutions adhere to government regulations in a proactive and cost efficient manner through our unique, cloud-based platform. The platform draws on internal data sources as well as multiple external industry data sources to help you revolutionize the way your organization audits and reviews its alignment with policy, strategy, regulation and community. Learn more.
AffirmX Regulator Package
At a compliance exam, you want to readily and easily convey to your examiners in just one document your approach to compliance. As part of the AffirmX solution, we’ll prepare a document called a Regulator Package, consisting of an overview of how your institution approaches compliance along with the findings of each of your review areas. Best part is, it’s free for our full platform clients. Contact us at compliance@affirmx.com for more information.
ADA Accessibility Audit
ADA compliance for websites is heating up as an issue for all financial institutions. Several law firms have begun threatening financial institutions with lawsuits claiming alleged ADA infractions. If you receive a notice from a law firm with claims like these, please contact us. We can offer a very efficient and cost-effective solution. We now have an expanded website audit that includes testing for ADA accessibility. Using our technology and tools, we take a deep dive into all components of your website. Contact us at sales@affirmx.com for more information.
November 2017 Update:
Changing Compliance Processes Mean Changing Reviews
Recently we’ve been hearing from credit unions that the NCUA is focusing more of their attention on different areas of compliance. AffirmX constantly enhances our solution to allow for this change. This might mean that we are looking at your documents in a different manner or that the risk scores might be elevated from the previous year. So what does this mean for your credit union?
1. Even though you submit the same documents, we might have given you a higher risk score. Our recommendations are more important because the examiners are focusing on this area.
2. We might be citing findings and providing recommendations that perhaps weren’t there last year. We are beginning to look at your items more in depth than ever before, given that the examiners are hitting credit unions in certain areas of compliance.
Contact Heather Riley to learn more.
ADA Accessibility Audit
ADA compliance for websites is heating up as an issue for all financial institutions. Several law firms have begun threatening financial institutions with lawsuits claiming alleged ADA infractions. If you receive a notice from a law firm with claims like these, please contact us. We can offer a very efficient and cost-effective solution. We now have an expanded website audit that includes testing for ADA accessibility. Using our technology and tools, we take a deep dive into all components of your website. Contact us at compliance@affirmx.com for more information.
September 2017 Update:
Meet MPAMS
If you’re looking for some help managing your Member Due Diligence and your Enhanced Due Diligence program, AdvisX would like to introduce you to MPAMS. The Member Profile and Activity Monitoring System is a game-changer for smaller financial institutions that have been trying to keep everything on track with a hodgepodge collection spreadsheets and paper-forms with incompatibly formatted reports from core systems, leaving an already stretched thin BSA team finding itself falling further behind each month. From account opening, to the 90-day review, to the annual EDD review for high-risk members, MPAMS is there to give you the tools you need. It includes three modules: 1) the Member Profile Manager; 2) AML Surveillance Monitoring System; and 3) AML Tracking Alert System. MPAMS isn’t just an app: it includes the data crunching support your BSA team needs, so it can focus on its efforts on what it does best: knowing your members. Contact sales@advisx.com or call 1-888-980-1949 to arrange a no-obligation demo. Read more about MPAMS here.
New Complaint Management Tool
Complaint management used to be so simple. But in this era of prolific information sharing, consumers are complaining in more ways and on more platforms than ever before. That’s why every institution needs an effective complaint management system. AffirmX’s new Complaint Management Tool is designed to simplify complaint management by letting you monitor complaints and track resolutions and responses all in one place. The best part is it’s free with the AffirmX Compliance Solution or for anyone who watches a free demo. Contact Heather Riley or your local league to learn more.
BSA Support Squad
You know those times when you’re in clearing AML alerts and the pile keeps getting deeper, or when you’re temporarily down a BSA analyst for an extended absence, or when you have a big deadline approaching and you’ve done the math and realized with your current resources, there’s no way it can get done in time? If so, you may be interested in AffirmX’s BSA Support Squad. We have a team of BSA/AML analysts that is adept at working remotely and efficiently through assigned projects. Their work is QC’d by a highly experienced BSA/AML auditor, an approach that makes hiring the BSA Support Squad surprisingly cost-effective, especially compared to hiring a large firm or permanently increasing the size of the BSA team for a short-term need. For a no-obligation proposal, please contact sales@affirmx.com or call 1-888-972-3624.
May 2017 Update:
How to Get an SSAE 16 from Expedient
If you or your vendor management service provider needs a copy of our host provider Expedient’s SSAE 16 or other SOC reports for due diligence purposes, here are the procedures to follow:
- For a copy of the SOC 3 report, which is a summary of the SSAE 16 and other audits, the most recent report may be obtained by clicking SOC Reports – NDA 2017.
- If you need the detailed SSAE 16 and SOC 2 report, Expedient requires that the requesting financial institution complete an NDA. Click SOC Reports – NDA 2017 to obtain a copy of this NDA. It is extremely important that in addition to signing the NDA you also fill in the blank spaces in the first paragraph on the first page of the form. Expedient will not provide the reports unless this paragraph is complete. The signed and completed NDA should be sent to Jane Pannier at jane.pannier@affirmx.com, who will submit the NDA to Expedient. Expedient is very responsive to these requests, when they are submitted through the correct channels, and typically will send the reports directly to you within 24 hours.
- For other types of due diligence documents, please send your request directly to Heather.Riley@affirmx.com.
Project Remediation Tool on the AffirmX Platform
AffirmX’s Project Remediation Tool is designed for full access users to launch and create projects based on AffirmX’s reviews and audits. lt allows users to track and manage changes based on AffirmX recommendations and/or citations from these reviews. Training for this tool will be provided by AffirmX and the affiliated League. To see a sample of a report generated by the remediation tool, click here.
Fore! 4-Audit Package
To help reduce risk management workloads, anxieties and costs, we have developed a package of basic compliance audits and risk intelligence support services. The package includes these four audits:
- BSA Independent Audit
- Annual ACH Independent Audit
- Annual SAFE Act Independent Audit
- Website Compliance Review
AML Monitoring System Validation Services
AdvisX, AffirmX’s sister company, focuses on providing institutions with tools, services and risk management assistance. One of those tools is AML Monitoring System Validation. This three-phase validation is designed to make sure your AML monitoring system is doing what it should be, when it should be. Learn more.
January 2017 Update:
NCUA’s 2017 Exam Priorities
NCUA released its 2017 Supervisory Priorities to help credit unions prepare for exams. Areas of focus include cybersecurity, BSA compliance, interest rate and liquidity risk, and several others. Keep an eye out for a Risk Watch episode detailing how you can best prioritize and prepare to meet NCUA’s expectations. See the NCUA Supervisory Priorities here.
You Know About AffirmX, But What is AdvisX?
AdvisX is AffirmX’s sister company. While AffirmX focuses on helping institutions assess and manage compliance risk, AdvisX focuses on providing institutions with tools, services and risk management assistance. Learn more about AdvisX here.
AffirmX’s Fair Lending Risk Assessment Service
Managing Fair Lending starts with knowing where you stand. We complete a Fair Lending Risk Assessment off site, saving you time and money. We start with an online questionnaire and artifact requests that you can upload via our secure platform. We finish with a written report that will give you a solid handle not only on where you stand, but with specifics of what to do next. Learn more.
Message from the CEO
Happy New Year. Nothing could be more accurate for AffirmX and our sister company AdvisX. 2016 was a happy year as it showed profits for both entities and significant growth in new product development, existing product improvement and increased share of our customers. We saw better than 98% renewal, added several critical new League and Association partners, and watched as many of you, our existing customers, increased your commitment to our patented Risk Intel Center platform by adding such services as Internal Audit, Vendor Management, Fair Lending Review, Enterprise Risk, Cyber Security and IT, to name a few. Participation and interaction with our MyRiskInbox suite of tools was also at a new high with many of you taking advantage of the free training and support materials available in MyToolBox, AXU University course work, viewership of our Risk Watch episodes and our daily/weekly updates on RiskInboxPlus. With more than 400 on the platform and penetration in 42 States, we see only a bright future for AffirmX and our customer and association partners. As a matter of fact, our current pipeline shows that we could double again in size this year. We even saw conversions from our competitor’s products to ours with no one going the other way, and we were invited as subject matter expert speakers at many of your regional meetings. This year we expect to roll out even more options for the platform while receiving our second Patent and holding prices steady. We have had no increases on existing products since inception.
The market is changing. No longer are boots on the ground services enough to provide all the needed information in a timely manner. Our distributed solution does just that. No longer must organizations have full time or shared personnel to manage compliance. We support many credit unions who use us successfully to fill that role, and that is a huge cost savings to a smaller sized credit union or bank. We expect to work towards additional content around state regulations and HR compliance later this year, so be on the lookout. Your feedback is critical, and we are grateful to our customers who have provided us with so much of the direction of the company. Look for more big announcements this year.
Warm Regards,
Ken Wolff, CEO
2017 Risk IQ Awards for Compliance Readiness
Each year we issue a limited number of awards. To be considered please forward a statement about the impact any of our solutions has had to help improve the compliance readiness at your institution. Email statements to heather.riley@affirmx.com.
October 2016 Update:
Get ready for your next exam with AffirmX’s Regulator Package
Fast forward in your mind to your next compliance examination: You want to readily and easily convey to your examiners in just one document your approach to compliance and an overview of your performance on your AffirmX audits of BSA, lending, operations, etc. Good news! It’s already part of the AffirmX solution. We’ll prepare a document called a Regulator Package, consisting of an overview of how your institution approaches compliance along with the findings of each of your review areas. This way, we ensure coverage of the full range of relevant compliance matters. Even better, it’s free for our full platform clients. Learn more here.
Getting the most out of the Notifications Center
Notifications in the platform now have a more streamlined list of instructions to complete each one. Not only will this make using the platform that much easier, but it will also save you time and relieve stress. Learn more about the Risk Intel Center Dashboard.
File Vault Search Feature
The File Vault just became much more accessible with a new search feature. The search feature is even more effective with an added “Filter” feature, which lets you further narrow your search. Learn more.
Have any questions? Contact your league or association representative, or contact us directly at info@affirmx.com or 888-972-3624