Managing credit union vendor relationships continues to be complicated for two reasons. One is the increasing complexity of the vendor relationships themselves. Credit unions need to work with a variety of vendors, and sometimes even hire vendors that rely on other vendors to support a particular function or member service. The second reason vendor relationship management is tricky is increased and changing regulator scrutiny of vendor relationships; what is OK during a CU’s current exam might not be OK during the next one.

And there’s no question that it’s not easy to ascertain whether an outside provider is truly compliant. The six documents below come editor-recommended for being content rich. Hopefully, reviewing them will help you discern the lay of the land in the vendor compliance management arena (including the key role of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau)—and help you develop thoughtful steps you can take with your vendor compliance management efforts.

Articles about the Regulatory History

“A Significant Change in the Regulatory Oversight of Third-Party Relationships”

By John ReVeal and Judie Rinearson of the Bank Bryan Cave law firm

In recent years it has become quite obvious that the bar has been raised on how banks relate to their third-party processors, program managers and other service providers.

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