PHILADELPHIA – The Compliance Doctor now makes house calls, and the first "patient" was Eagle One Federal Credit Union. It's a new service offered by the Pennsylvania Credit Union Association to bring regulatory compliance training directly to credit unions. Instead of a credit union sending several staffers out of the office, the league sends The Compliance Doctor to the credit union for an on-site session. John King, Eagle One CEO, explains the credit union had already been doing a lot of in-house training over the past year or so. "We've had considerable growth and new staff, some experienced and some not," King notes. During the past year, EOCU has hired a half dozen employees. Staffing has grown from eight full-time people and three part-time to 17 full-time employees. Assets have risen to $39 million from $32 million a couple years ago, and membership has climbed from 4,700 to 6,000. "We felt it was good to have somebody come from the outside, and from the association in particular, because they're the ones we call all the time with questions we do not quite understand and situations that may arise. The woman who came out here was also on the receiving end of some of our phone calls," King says. The Compliance Doctor was Stacy Harbilas, PCUA compliance and information specialist. She reviewed vital signs credit unions need to check to assure compliance in deposit and share draft accounts including deceased accounts, savings account trusts, minors, power of attorney, forged checks and stop payments. King indicates the approach was very cost-beneficial. He terms the cost as "extremely reasonable." The actual cost varies, depending on how far The Compliance Doctor has to travel. "I sat in, and so did five employees. We really can't send five employees out on one day – it gets difficult to send more than two out. It's great to be able to put half a day aside and make a room available for four or five people to get together," he says. "She had a very well-prepared handout for every person, and people kind of followed along. She also made us feel very comfortable to ask questions. Some of the things we talked about have just recently come up, such as the Patriot Act." In fact, almost an entire hour was devoted to questions. King notes Harbilas offered examples of real issues based on actual phone calls she has handled from credit unions. Does King plan to ask The Compliance Doctor to make other house calls? "I certainly do," he answers. "I see the need to have other visits, once or maybe twice a year. I think every person we had at the session picked up something. We tend to inundate the staff with all the new rules and regulations. When they sit down, talk to each other and to someone else, I think it sinks it much quicker." -

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