Me: in Banking 16 years, Compliance for 3, have my CRCM, mostly self study, no prior Compliance Schools.

I appears management may actually allow a school/conference for me this year, so will I better served going to the ABA Regulatory Compliance Conference in July, or wait for a ABA Compliance School hopefully in the fall or spring?

Thoughts?

If you have your CRCM already, I would think the conference may be more beneficial to you.

As a CRCM, you've demonstrated proficiency in a wide range of regs. You might fill in a few gaps in your knowledge, but you won't get much out of the basic Compliance School.

After you complete the steep part of the learning curve, your professional development needs will change. Beginning at this point, your priority will be to keep up with change: internal, industry, products, laws & regs, examiner priorities, and the mood of enforcement agencies (mirroring the mood in Congress).

Conferences are geared to developments--recent and upcoming. They offer an excellent overview of the industry's current regulatory priorities. One important insight (or discovery of an oversight on your part) can easily be worth the price of admission.

At the NRCC, you'll have access to the rulewriters, senior regulators, and veteran compliance managers from across the nation. By the end of a conference, you will know the "hot buttons" that will drive your next exam--giving you time to batten down the hatches.

It's tough to show your senior managers all the value your bank gets from the NRCC, but when it comes to examiner findings and criticism, less is more! By working smart and paying attention to your regulators' priorities and hot buttons, you can avoid the consequences of a scorched earth exam. Your CEO will be able to smile when listening to peers moan and groan about problems you avoided. CEOs like to smile when it comes to regulations--they have many other fish to fry!

What's NRCC?

The ABA's National Regulatory Compliance Conference.

Are you looking only for information on compliance? There are a number of really good banking schools that offer management training across a broad sprectrum of banking, not just compliance. If you are hoping to spread your wings as you continue your banking career, one of these may be good. LSU, SMU, and Colorado State all offer excellent banking schools - although they go either 2 or 3 years each.