Compliance-Forward is the New Strategic Benchmark for Receivables Management and Collections

Compliance has been moving, in fits and starts, from a check-the-box activity to a vital enterprise capability. That’s because the consequences of non-compliance in receivables management and collections, from financial penalties and operational disruptions to reputational damage and loss of customer trust, are becoming more immediate and severe.

Both ARM leaders and their customer communications and payments partners are now flipping that script, moving from preventing non-compliance to turning compliance into a strategic asset. These compliance-forward companies not only treat compliance as a corporate imperative but also see the potential to make it a competitive advantage and business enabler.

Compliance-forward ARM integrates adherence and accountability for regulations, data security and fair credit practices throughout the business, embedding it into organizational culture and structure. Compliance forward is proactive, continuous and always-audit-ready, leveraging data, technology, AI, automation and employee training to mitigate risk and strengthen operational resilience, stakeholder trust, brand image, efficiency and growth.

U.S. receivables management and collections firms and departments are facing an increasingly complicated and intensifying compliance environment. In particular, highly regulated industries, such as healthcare, utilities and consumer finance including auto and mortgage lending and servicing, are only becoming more so, with escalating mandates, scrutiny and repercussions.

Some major challenges:

Compliance-forward receivables management and collections are holding vendors to a similarly high compliance standard. Strategic, pervasive and real-time compliance is especially important for those handling personally identifiable information (PII) and protected health information (PHI), notably providers of customer communications management (CCM) software, email, text messaging and print and mail outsourcing services, and electronic bill presentment and payment (EBPP) solutions.

Moving beyond an auditor-focused compliance strategy that’s about ticking off boxes, compliance-forward approaches for CCM, print and mail and EBPP providers leverage technology and redesigned processes, including:

Instead of collecting evidence manually every quarter/year, they implement software that continuously checks key controls such as:

This approach enables companies to catch and address any exceptions as they occur.

Companies use software to automatically pull and store audit evidence, such as logs, settings, user lists, and policies, from such company sources as: 

It cuts down on weeks of manually assembling the data for annual or more frequent audits.

Software can map the company’s controls for such standards and certifications as SOC 2, ISO 27001, and HIPAA to its compliance frameworks, tracking:

Immediate information makes it easier to expand into new standards without rebuilding everything from scratch.

Companies assign controls to owners in a variety of departments such as IT, Security, HR, and Engineering. They then use software to track tasks and send task reminders, enabling shared compliance across the enterprise. 

Becoming compliance forward enables receivables management and collections firms and their partners to support key enterprise goals, including fostering customer trust, enhancing operational efficiency, and reducing legal risks amid complex, evolving laws and security and privacy threats. It takes what has been seen as a cost of doing business and turns it into a valuable strategic advantage.

Please contact us to learn how our compliance-forward approach can help you optimize your customer communications and payments – giving you a strategic advantage.