Financial compliance covers critical business areas, including protecting vital company data and preserving the organization’s reputation. Because issues like fraud and data breaches can affect both large and small organizations, financial regulation compliance isn’t relegated to major corporations; instead, it is necessary for businesses of any size to have a leader who understands the complexities of these risks and how to mitigate them.
The Master of Legal Studies in Compliance and Risk Management exists to guide such leaders. Seattle University School of Law offers this online program for those who want to learn about the laws and policies that shape these issues, providing students with the education they need to help both organizations and their customers.
Understanding Your Client
Ever-shifting technologies and regulations require financial institutions to implement robust strategies to ensure continual compliance, including employee training programs that can help mitigate oversights or mistakes. The Master of Legal Studies in Compliance and Risk Management program at Seattle University School of Law teaches students how to address the specific needs of the company rather than simply memorizing a general set of rules and regulations. By graduation, you’ll have the skills necessary to help the organization –especially those in the financial service industry–maintain viable and reliable operations while increasing transparency for their stakeholders.
Here are just a few of the considerations that come with financial regulations:
- Protecting sensitive data with strong cybersecurity controls
- Implementing consumer protection measures
- Ensuring fraud prevention
- Monitoring payment systems
- Keeping up to date with the latest technology, such as AI programs for banking
Knowing your client is also a crucial aspect of fraud reduction. Money laundering and forgery are just two vulnerabilities that financial organizations face, putting them in danger of both costly penalties and reputational harm. Establish a relationship of mutual trust with your client through thorough research.
Learn The Importance of Cybersecurity
While evolving technology continues to interrupt business practices across the world, it’s more crucial than ever for companies to uphold rigorous cybersecurity practices. These practices include training employees to be aware of the latest scams and protections, utilizing tactics like encryption, intrusion detection, and firewalls to protect data, and following up with third-party vendors to ensure consistency. Students of the program must learn how to build and implement a cybersecurity compliance plan for organizations as a proactive step in keeping data safe. This type of plan will also have detailed steps for managing a data breach should one occur, giving business entities peace of mind in an ever-changing landscape.
Work With Government Entities
Individuals working in the financial regulation sector must also learn to collaborate with government entities, such as the Department of Financial Services and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). The FDIC insures checking and savings accounts by monitoring the operations within banking institutions and ensuring that they’re well within the federal guidelines. The FDIC also ensures compliance with consumer protections such as the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) and the Truth-In-Lending Act. As a student in this legal program, you’ll learn the significance of these acts and explore how they intersect with the various aspects of financial compliance.
Because more people around the world are using online services for banking and other financial transactions these days, there are new risks posed to organizations every day due to the growing sophistication of hackers and other individuals involved in illegal activity. The European Union (EU) has created the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to safeguard consumer privacy and uphold strict regulations for businesses around the world. The GDPR is rather large and encompasses a wide range of rules, and it also enforces major fines and penalties for those in violation, making it essential for those involved in financial regulation compliance to learn at least the key aspects. With Seattle University’s Financial Privacy and Cybersecurity course, you can learn the importance of these online regulations.
Work With Companies To Ensure Credit Card Standards
Whether you choose to work with retail corporations or a banking institution, there are many ways you can positively affect their relationships with consumers. Building trust is key to any business’s success, and that often involves understanding how third-party companies utilize programs that will affect those consumers, such as apps or software. This is especially true for credit card readers and payment systems.
Every business that accepts credit card payments must adhere to strict regulations in order to keep consumer information safe and prevent fraud. As an individual working with organizations in financial risk and regulatory management, you’ll need to understand these regulations as well as widely accepted standards, specifically the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). While not technically a law or regulation, the PCI DSS imposes several rules to ensure the safe handling of credit cards from major companies, including processing transactions and storing customer information. These rules include:
- Maintaining a secure network for all transactions
- Protecting cardholders’ personal information, such as social security numbers and addresses
- Implementing risk assessment programs to protect against malicious actors
- Instituting strong access measures for all individuals within the company
- Monitoring and testing these programs regularly to ensure they are in good working order
Help Institutions Maintain Ethical Practices
Businesses of all kinds need to maintain ethical practices, which is why Seattle University School of Law offers a Corporate Compliance and Ethics course within the MLS program. This course teaches ethical standards to help institutions avoid misleading the public. For banks and other financial entities, this means integrating strong values into every transaction, ensuring that public trading, market prices, and the risks of securities are kept transparent. By serving the public with a conscience, financial companies can build strong and lasting relationships with their customers.
Explore a Variety Of Career Options
After completion of the Master of Legal Studies in Compliance and Risk Management, you’ll have a variety of career options available to you. Learning about laws and regulations that protect the public and keep organizations in financial compliance will give you the skills to work comfortably in fields like corporate compliance, financial fraud, and cybersecurity. If you have a keen eye for detail, you might be well-suited for an analyst position that allows you to perform audits on organizational procedures. This would help businesses find weaknesses and streamline their processes, potentially saving them money and legal issues.
Here are just a few examples of the types of companies you might work for after graduation:
- Financial services
- Healthcare
- Retail
- Sports Law
- Insurance firms
- Food-related businesses
- Pharmaceutical companies
As a student in the MLS program at Seattle University School of Law, you’ll be able to navigate your studies online with experienced professors while still working or keeping up with other responsibilities. Weekly modules keep the course load streamlined, allowing you to interact with your classmates through discussion boards and optional live classes. You will also have access to a wide range of law resources to help you complete your degree with confidence.
If you’re looking for a flexible way to boost your career and enhance your earning potential, Seattle University School of Law can meet your goals. Take a look at the course requirements today!
