Finding the right balance between marketing and compliance is essential for community banks. The first step is ensuring that marketers and compliance officers build a trusting relationship. Compliance should always be involved in marketing decisions to prevent any issues. Community banks need to make sure their marketing messages are clear and easy for the average customer to understand, especially as regulations like the new FDIC are becoming stricter.
In this episode, Chris Bates, Dan Novalis, and Memrie Fortenberry discuss how community banks must ensure their third-party vendors are properly managed. Even if a third party handles your marketing or creates your ads, the bank is ultimately responsible for ensuring everything complies with regulations. Banks must carefully monitor their advertising to avoid issues like redlining or unfair practices, which have been the focus of recent DOJ actions.
It’s important to review all marketing materials regularly to ensure they reach the right audience and are not misleading. As technology and customer expectations evolve, staying on top of compliance and regulation changes is critical to maintaining trust and success in the community banking space.
Topics Include:
- Why compliance should always be involved in your marketing strategy
- Why your marketing needs to be easy for the average customer to understand
- What regulations community banks are currently focused on
- The new FDIC compliance rules that are clear, conspicuous, and clear
- What the recurring regulation problems are
- What you need to know about third-party vendor management
- What the future of compliance and regulations looks like
Memrie Fortenberry is the special counsel for the Banking & Financial Services Industry Team and a member of the Corporate Practice Group. She advises community banks and other financial institutions on compliance and regulatory matters. Memrie is an experienced lawyer focused on bank regulatory and compliance matters. She regularly advises clients on federal and state financial services regulations and laws, including the Bank Secrecy Act, fair lending, and other consumer protection regulations.
Memrie is a certified community bank compliance officer representing a broad range of banks, lenders, and other financial institutions with significant experience serving as outside counsel for community banks. Memrie is also a presenter with the Bankers Compliance Task Force.
While in law school, Memrie served an externship for Judge Neil P. Olack of the US Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of Mississippi. Before entering law school, she completed the management development associate program at Trustmark Bank and went on to work as a corporate services officer.
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