Certified Regulatory Compliance Manager Practice Exam

The CRCM certification showcases your proficiency in regulatory compliance. Eligible compliance professionals with at least three years of experience and who have finished approved training programs can pursue this designation. To attain the Certified Regulatory Compliance Manager (CRCM) title, candidates must:

• Satisfy the eligibility criteria
• Submit a completed application and fees for their chosen exam date
• Successfully pass the CRCM examination.

Who should take the exam?

Specific individuals who might benefit from taking the CRCM exam:

• Compliance officers
• Risk management professionals
• Internal auditors
• Branch managers
• Loan officers
• Anyone with direct responsibility for ensuring their organization complies with financial regulations

Exam Prerequisite:

Candidates must fulfill the following eligibility criteria before taking the exam. The American Bankers Association (ABA) will consider your application if your education/training is scheduled to be completed by your exam date. Please note that ABA certifications are based on U.S. laws and regulations and are not available outside the U.S.

Experience Requirements:

FIRST OPTION: 3+ YEARS OF EXPERIENCE

Candidates must have a minimum of three (3) years of experience as a compliance professional in the U.S. Additionally, they must complete TWO of the following compliance-related training options within the last five (5) years:

• ABA Compliance School - Foundational
• ABA Compliance School - Intermediate
• Compliance Professionals Certificates (4 Total) New!
• CRCM Exam Online Prep
• ABA In-Bank Compliance Schools
• 30 credits (1 credit = 50 minutes) of compliance training directly related to U.S. laws and regulations outlined in the CRCM Examination Outline. Refer to the Training Credit Options below for examples of training.
• ABA Certificate in Deposit Compliance and ABA Certificate in Lending Compliance (NOT available for purchase after July 2022). If you have previously enrolled in or completed these two legacy certificates, they will fulfill the eligibility requirement until July 2023.

SECOND OPTION: 6+ YEARS OF EXPERIENCE

Candidates must have six (6) or more years of experience as a compliance professional in the U.S. within the last ten (10) years. Furthermore, three (3) of the six years must be within the last five (5) years.

Professional Experience:

A compliance manager's role typically involves direct management of compliance risk programs and/or assessment of the effectiveness of compliance risk controls. The routine execution of operational business processes incorporating compliance risk controls is not typically within the scope of duties for a compliance manager and therefore does not count toward fulfilling the experience requirement.

To meet the Professional Experience requirement, candidates must have primary responsibility for a comprehensive range of compliance risk functions. These functions may include, but are not limited to:

• Conducting compliance risk assessments, audits, or examinations
• Developing, implementing, and/or overseeing all aspects of a compliance risk management program to ensure adherence to U.S. federal laws and regulations

These roles are commonly found within corporate compliance, legal, internal or external audit departments, regulatory agencies, or specialized compliance practices within consulting firms. Job responsibilities must primarily focus on compliance risk management, such as:

• Designing, implementing, and supervising compliance risk management programs
• Providing expert advice as a subject-matter specialist
• Administering, enforcing, or auditing compliance-related policies, procedures, and processes to mitigate compliance risk
• Conducting examinations of a bank's compliance program

Exam Details

• Exam Name: Certified Regulatory Compliance Manager
• Questions: 200 multiple-choice questions
• Time: Maximum 4 hour timeframe allowed
• Calculators will be provided
• Instant "Pass/Fail" outcome provided for computer-based exams at a testing center

Certified Regulatory Compliance Manager Exam Course Outline 

The Exam covers the given topics  - 

Domain 1: Overview of Assessment and Management of Compliance Risk (28%)

• Learn skills to act as a compliance subject matter expert on projects and committees.
• Ability to assess the development of, or changes to, products, services, processes, and systems
• Ability to determine compliance risk and impacts and ensure policies remain compliant.
• Develop skills to offer compliance support to internal and external parties
• Ability to review and/or provide compliance training to applicable parties.
• Ability to conduct due diligence for vendors.
• Develop skills to design and maintain a comprehensive compliance risk assessment program for identifying and mitigating risk within the organization’s risk appetite.
• Ability to conduct compliance risk assessments in accordance with the risk assessment program 

Domain 2: Overview of Compliance Monitoring (25%)

• Ability to define the scope of a specific monitoring or testing activity.
• Ability to test compliance policies, procedures, controls, and transactions against regulatory requirements
• Ability to identify risks and potential exceptions.
• Ability to review and confirm potential exceptions, findings, and recommendations with business units
• Develop and issue a final report to senior management.
• Ability to validate that any required remediation was completed accurately and within required timelines.
• Ability to assist a complaint management program.
• Ability to review first-line compliance monitoring results and develop an action plan as needed.
• Ability to evaluate the reliability of systems of record and the validity of data within those systems that are used for compliance monitoring.

Domain 3: Overview of Governance and Oversight (10%)

• Develop skills to establish and maintain a compliance management policy
• Ability to set expectations for board, senior management, and business unit responsibilities.
• Ability to develop, conduct, and track enterprise-wide and/or job-specific compliance training.
• Ability to conduct periodic reviews of the compliance management program
• Ability to evaluate the effectiveness of the program and communicate results to appropriate parties.

Domain 4: Overview of Regulatory Change Management (15%)

• Ability to monitor and evaluate applicable regulatory agency notifications for new compliance regulations
• Ability to amend existing regulations to assess potential regulatory impacts and remediation needs.
• Ability to assess new, revised, or proposed regulatory changes for compliance impacts, communicate to the appropriate parties
• Ability to develop action plans as needed.
• Ability to assess regulatory guidance and compliance enforcement actions
• Ability to determine if remediation is required to address potential compliance impacts.
• Ability to report on the status of regulatory changes and implementation to appropriate parties.
• Ability to monitor and validate action plans for confirmed regulatory impacts to ensure timely adherence to the mandatory compliance date.

Domain 5: Regulator and Auditor Compliance Management (11%)

• Ability to prepare and review requested audit/exam materials to ensure timely and accurate fulfilment
• Ability to participate in audit/exam meetings to provide business overviews, address questions, discuss findings, or provide updates to appropriate parties.
• Ability to review and draft responses to audit/exam results
• Ability to ensure action plans are developed and communicated to appropriate parties.
• Ability to report on action plan status to appropriate levels of management and auditors/examiners.
• Ability to coordinate and submit ongoing regulatory reports to auditors/examiners.

Domain 6: Overview of Compliance Analysis and Internal/External Reporting (11%)

• Ability to analyze and validate data to support regulatory reporting and ensure accuracy and comprehensiveness.
• Ability to complete required reporting, ensure timely submission to the appropriate agency, and resubmit when required.
• Ability to develop, implement, and monitor a plan of action to prevent future reporting errors or breakdowns.