Social media is often a large part of a financial institution’s marketing strategy, but taking full advantage of it requires safeguards that reduce regulatory findings when audits occur. From state-by-state licensing to record retention requirements, social media compliance can be daunting for institutions of any size. For Nessa Morris, Social Media Compliance Team Lead at CMG Mortgage, Inc. DBA CMG Home Loans (CMG), the burden of monitoring the brand’s social media presence has been eased with ActiveComply.

The Challenge

Several providers claim to offer peace of mind on social media compliance, but functionality varies widely between them, and the gaps can prove costly. As CMG evaluated its options, four challenges stood out:

1. Inconsistent prior tooling: CMG’s previous process and provider missed hot-button issues in real time, requiring more manual attention after the fact.
2. Prioritizing loan officer advertising: Capturing and prioritizing loan officer social media activity across the enterprise required more than manual review.
3. Limited-bio compliance: State-by-state licensing requirements were difficult to satisfy within the 100 to 160 characters of bio space most social platforms allow.
4. Team names and shifting regulations: Tracking Team Names, DBAs, and NMLS IDs across branches, alongside state-by-state regulatory changes, was difficult to do consistently without automation.

The Solution

CMG addressed these challenges with ActiveComply^® Social, including its digital business card capability (“LicenseLink”), giving its compliance team peace of mind that state-by-state disclosures update regularly to match an individual’s NMLS record.

With ActiveComply’s trigger term and watchlist word library, CMG can capture loan officer advertising on social media posts with ease. “The customized trigger terms help us prioritize what exactly we want to be looking for at CMG,” Morris says. Built-in automation isolates flagged words and phrases into folders for team review, supporting collaboration across the compliance team.

ActiveComply’s social media monitoring also gives CMG the ability to discover new social media accounts and quickly diagnose profile checkup issues that need correction. Through Contact Cards, users can focus on one license at a time.

“ActiveComply has streamlined a lot for us,” Morris says. “It takes the worry out of making sure that we have all our employees integrated and on the same page.”

Limited bio space made state compliance difficult to maintain on its own, so CMG also uses LicenseLink to solve for limited-bio social platforms. “We fell in love with LicenseLink, it’s been a game changer for us,” Morris says. Built on the data set ActiveComply receives from NMLS Consumer Access, LicenseLink creates a digital business card for each licensed employee, reflecting state-by-state licensing, branch information, and more, with automatic updates as licensing changes.

Armed with CMG’s licensing numbers and brand information, ActiveComply’s automated discovery system notifies Morris and her team when connected NMLS IDs, Team Names, or DBAs show up on any social profile, and flags incorrect titles or unauthorized Team, Trade, or DBA names. “We appreciate having ActiveComply for additional compliance insight on challenging subjects like team names and comarketing,” says Paula Leber, VP of Compliance & Licensing at CMG.

ActiveComply’s compliance staff provide guidance on state-by-state requirements during onboarding and build custom profile checkup flags based on how each institution satisfies those requirements. “ActiveComply is not only a great product,” Leber says. “But also, a great partner in providing us guidance and advice to assist us with our social media policy and issues we’ve uncovered.”

The Results

With ActiveComply monitoring its social channels, CMG gained a clearer, real-time view into how its loan officers communicate and interact on social media, along with the confidence that hot-button issues are caught before they escalate.

“ActiveComply has given us a better understanding of how our originators are communicating and interacting with people on social media,” Morris says. “It’s far easier to know which trends can become an issue.”

Beyond the technology, CMG gained a compliance partner. Integrated, responsive support means the team can get a meeting on the calendar with ActiveComply whenever a compliance complication comes up, rather than working through it alone. “Whenever additional help is required, the platform has help directly integrated into it,” Morris says. With both technical support on platform updates and guidance on emerging regulatory changes in hand, CMG can steadily rely on ActiveComply to help diagnose and resolve social media compliance concerns as they arise.