FORT WORTH, Texas — What likely is on the minds of top
finance company executives isn't hard to pinpoint nowadays: Complying with an
intensifying regulatory environment championed by the Consumer Financial
Protection Bureau.

In response, organizers of this year's NAF Association's
17th annual Non-Prime Auto Financing Conference created a day-long track of
sessions focused on several areas of compliance for lenders; subjects ranging
from prohibition of unfair, deceptive and abusive acts and practices to the
association's new program dedicated to compliance certification.

The intense compliance dialogue will begin with a return of
the event's keynote speaker — Rick Hackett — assistant director of the CFPB,
leading the installment and liquidity lending group in the research, markets
and rulemaking division of the bureau.

"There's just so much being discussed and worried about with
what the CFPB is doing that we decided to give separate, in-depth sessions on
each of the important subject areas," NAF Association executive director Jack
Tracey said.

"In so many conferences, there's a session or maybe two
devoted to the whole gamut of things that are happening with the CFPB," Tracey
continued. "We felt that if we broke it down into various components — going
into them in more detail and depth — it would be more meaningful for the people
at the conference. That's the big thing we're doing this year."

It all takes place next Wednesday through Friday at the Omni
Fort Worth Hotel in Fort Worth, Texas.

Like a year ago, Hackett's keynote address will unfold as a
back-and-forth dialogue with Tom Hudson, chairman of Hudson Cook. Hackett plans
to share what he can about the CFPB's regulatory agenda from his position that
includes responsibilities for advising all divisions of the bureau with respect
to market information and policy and legal issues in the installment and
specialty lending areas, including vehicle finance, student lending and payday
lending.

After Hackett's appearance, the conference splits into two
distinct tracks: one dedicated completely to compliance with the other
incorporating many topics the NAF Association has blended into past events,
including an in-depth look at data within the subprime lending space as well as
the latest trends in remarketing and the used-vehicle arena.

Among the presenters discussing industry trends are:

—Ricky Beggs, editorial director at Black Book

—Bill Denius, partner at Killgore Pearlman

—Joe George, senior vice president of product development at
Manheim

—Marty McFarland, executive vice president at NextGear
Capital

—Jim Satterfield, president, chief executive officer and
founder of Firestorm Franchising

—Tom Webb, chief economist with Manheim Consulting

—Melinda Zabritski, director of automotive credit at
Experian Automotive

The compliance track will feature several partners from
Hudson Cook, including Joel Winston and Michael Benoit. The closing session
will give attendees a glimpse at the compliance certification program the NAF
Association intends to have up and running this fall.

Tracey and Hudson Cook partner Patty Covington will
introduce the program concept and share a sample session participants will be
undertaking when they begin this compliance training.

"Each law that would be relevant for an auto finance company
to be aware of and be in compliance with, there will be a session on it,"
Tracey said. "It will be a rather rigorous and extensive program for someone to
go through. But the thought is there is a need out in the marketplace,
especially with the emphasis on compliance for finance companies to have
educated, well-informed people in the compliance monitoring area.

"Some finance companies can have an in-house counsel but
others can't. They're looking for people who can be knowledgeable and trained
in this area so they can help the company conform to whatever the compliance
requirements are," he went to say.

"Even for the bigger companies that have internal counsel
handling compliance, those organizations have a number of people beneath the
counsel who are going into each department and auditing or overseeing to make
sure things are in compliance," Tracey added. "We feel those support people for
the attorneys would be people who could be trained in this area."

Tracey indicated that it could take an individual at least a
year to 18 months to complete all of the modules.

"But when they're done, they should be very versed in all of
the things they need to know," Tracey said.

Most of the modules will be available online, but the Tracey
noted that the NAF Association is considering the prospect of having a handful
being orchestrated live, similar to what will be available at this year's
conference.

"When you're doing it exclusively online, you're a little
bit isolated from other people," Tracey said. "We feel that doing an occasional
live module would be helpful because it will allow people to network and get to
know other people who are in the same area."

Tracey said the costs for the compliance program haven't
been set yet, but NAF Association members likely won't have to pay as much for
the training as non-members.

"The association sees the need in the marketplace for
rigorous education in the area of compliance and wanted to develop a program to
do it," he said.


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Nick Zulovich can be reached at nzulovich@subprimenews.com. Continue the conversation with SubPrime Auto Finance News on LinkedIn and Twitter.