Building relationships with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and other regulators is “so important,” said Linda Iannone, chief compliance officer at Toyota Financial Services.
“We haven’t been examined by the CFPB yet, but we took a very proactive approach,” Iannone told attendees at the Auto Finance Risk & Compliance Summit in May. “As soon as the larger participant rule became effective, we reached out to the Western regional director for supervision at the CFPB and set up a meeting with him. We really wanted to introduce him to our company.”
Iannone, along with Richard Miller, director of compliance at Hyundai Capital America, gave advice on how best to conduct meetings with regulators during a CFPB exam while speaking on a panel at the summit.
“One of the things that I really want to avoid is treating it like a deposition and just saying yes or no,” Miller said. “That will make an exam go very badly, in short order.”
Rather, interviewees should focus on exactly what is being asked, and don’t volunteer to answer questions more suited for another subject matter expert, Miller advised.
Hear more advice from Miller and Iannone in the video below — the third in our four-part video series on coping with exams:
