There's a stereotypical perception that credit union marketers and compliance officers just don't get along. But like most stereotypical scenarios, this one is almost always misleading.

In fact, marketers and compliance officers who form strong professional partnerships are successful in ensuring their social media marketing projects are not misleading, which can protect the credit union's reputation, prevent potential class action lawsuits and help avoid uncomfortable conflicts with NCUA and state examiners.

What's more, NAFCU has been urging the NCUA to modernize Part 740, which regulates advertising to accommodate the growth of social media, mobile banking and other digital communications programs. NAFCU said it continues to hear from its members that applying Part 740 to social media is unclear, complicated and burdensome.

Compliance experts and credit union professionals agree that knowing the basic compliance requirements to sidestep pitfalls and problems can go a long way in helping craft and implement compliant social media marketing campaigns.

“There are some compliance pitfalls, and we do a lot of training for various leagues and for credit unions specifically on social media compliance issues because it's a big area of concern,” said Gaye DeCesare, president/CEO of COMPASS 4 CUs LLC., a Woodbridge, Va.-based compliance services company.

Some of the less-than-obvious pitfalls are around unfair, deceptive and abusive acts or practices.

The Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 defined UDAAP as acts or practices that financially harm consumers and interferes with a consumer's ability to avoid financial harm.

For credit unions, that means they have to be careful with how they word their social media promotions.

Compliance problems can also easily surface when credit unions don't pay attention to the rather complex details of trigger terms that always require disclosures.

Even compliance experts agree that all of the rules and regulations can be complex and confusing, and are not particularly conducive to social media marketing.

NAFCU is currently making efforts to change the rules to give credit unions more flexibility.

Alexander Monterrubio, NAFCU's director of regulatory affairs, said the national organization continues to address the issues of Part 740 and noted that the regulations are up for review by the federal agency this year.

However, because the NCUA board is undergoing leadership transitions this year and a new president will be in charge of appointing board members starting in 2017, it's uncertain whether there will be any modifications to Part 740.

Read more details about how credit unions address social media marketing challenges in the April 27, 2016 print edition of Credit Union Times.

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Credit Union Marketers Face Compliance Challenges

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