Thread Starter: FedupFred
Title: Re: CRCM CE credits to be $50 for each submission?
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Ok, I'm calling it: continuing education credits to support a previously-achieved professional certification for bank compliance officers are a racket.
You need to be able to demonstrate to your regulator that you are qualified. You can do this with your diploma, degree, experience, and resume. If you have previously been certified by some external party in the industry as regards your specific position, then that says a lot about your qualifications too.
But, what's the real value, to us, as bankers, to continue to keep this certification up to date every year? I think the whole thing is designed primarily to ensure a cash flow to the entities that issue these certifications, some of which get a lot of their revenue from lobbying activities. You pay annual fees for your certification (Why? what are you getting, in exchange for that $100 or $200?), and you are told you must get X hours per year of continuing education credits in order to "maintain" your certification status.
I say Bah to that. You took the training, you took the test, you get the letters, and nothing will ever change that.
Now, we also have the requirement to demonstrate to regulators that we are staying aware of changes in our industry, such as changing fraud schemes, new laws and regs, and so on. But you can do that by taking whatever internal and external training you can find, as needed, to stay current. It's just that there is a wide gap between the amount you actually need to stay current, vs. the amount required by these organizations in order for them to consider your certification to be still "maintained" in their records. We don't need those organizations to do that for us. We're doing it, because they say that's how it's done. Regulators aren't telling us that it's necessary. We're just swallowing a vendor's juicy bait, along with the hook.
I say, once you are experienced and qualified, then depending on your organization's requirements and your regulator's expectations, it is very likely you can stop paying your annual certification fees, and you can stop chasing "credits" to "maintain" your certification too.
This year, I'm taking all my training from free, online sources. An internet search for the topic of interest will lead you straight to such training, which is sometimes put together by reputable organizations (international AML organizations, universities, and so on). I'll watch those and make a record of it. I'm done chasing "20 hours per year, 10 of which must be live" type requirements imposed on me by external organizations.
Now, there may be more professional designations (architecture? dentistry?) that do indeed require a documented number of credits per year, according to state law. Mortgage professionals may require certain types of training, to be up to date with the NMLS stuff. But here I'm just talking about those 4 or 5 letters that a lot of us high-school educated bankers got 5 or 10 years ago, and then got billed through the nose for, for the rest of our careers.
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