How did you get into the compliance arena?
I was running the lead business for one of the largest lead selling media companies in the country. We had a lot of traffic and were selling a lot of leads. We really didn’t know much about how and where our traffic was coming from and no one was asking too many questions. I became acutely aware of the lack of transparency marketers had into how their brands were appearing in online marketing, and that compliance was increasingly becoming a big issue. There was no cost effective way to monitor for these things so we decided to build it. We soon found ourselves as pioneers of a new industry, “Marketing Compliance.”
What are the main difficulties that companies face when monitoring compliance?
Tracking the volume of marketing across all the many channels, and the scalability of efforts. Also, compliance never sleeps, there needs to be 365 degree coverage. Finally, there’s a difference between understanding the regulations and making it actionable such that it’s protecting your brand.
How does PerformLine help to address these difficulties?
We provide a cloud based SaaS platform that monitors for compliance violations across all of your marketing channels. PerformLine is a single platform for multi-channel marketing. Our customers can use PerformMatch to assist with automated risk mitigation across almost any channel they are leveraging to acquire new and communicate with existing customers.
PerformLine provides companies with the ability to scale their compliance efforts. There are over 26 B compliance observations in our database and we process over 50 Million a day. Also, high value managed services are included in our offering which includes rule creation and optimization, BI analysis, trainings, etc.
What is the best way for companies to stay up to date on the various regulations?
They should read every bulletin and press release that the regulators put out on their websites. They should read the blogs and postings from law firms that specialize in advertising and have regulatory practice groups. They should read all news stories on those in their industry and others to get learnings from those who are undergoing enforcements by the regulators to see how the rules and laws are being interpreted and enforced. But if you don’t have time to do all of that you should partner with an expert in the field who can implement a compliance monitoring campaign based on federal regulations and the rules and brand guidelines that are important to your company.
How does PerformLine attempt to stand out from competitors?
We are the only scalable, automated, technology platform that monitors for compliance violations across all channels including contact centers. Our specific differentiators include:
1) Big Data. PerformLine has made over 26 Billion compliance observations to-date , scoring over 50 million each day.
2) Proprietary Rule Engine. Our rule engine allows for fast and easy conversion of a regulatory guideline in actionable and effective compliance rules. The rule engine is vertical agnostic so we can offer services in any vertical.
3) Comprehensive SaaS platform. Everything marketing compliance related is in one place: remediation efforts, workflow, alerts, risk rankings, rule calibration, user summary, and audit capabilities.
4) Easy to use and easy and fast to implement. Since PerformMatch lives in the cloud there is no expensive or timely install and it’s accessible from any time on device, any place you are.
How has PerformLine evolved over the years?
We’ve evolved in scope and scale as regulators became increasingly more vigilant and the many ways to reach consumers has exploded. When we first began it was the for-profit schools that were under the most intense pressure from regulators. Then the CFPB came into existence and began focusing on the financial industry and anything that harmed consumers. Also during this time marketers saw an explosion in new effective media channels that they now has access to as a result of changing technology and consumer media consumption: contact center, search, display, lead generation, email, affiliates, etc. Our platform has evolved to cover all of these channels and regulations to meet the demands of our customers including the need for a workflow tool to centralize all compliance and remediation activities across internal departments, and with external partners.
What do you see coming over the horizon, in the compliance industry, that financial institutions should be looking for?
Regulatory pressure will continue, especially as we see in an increase in peer to peer lending and alternative lending. The May 19th complaint and proposed consent order filed by the CFPB against PayPal alleges deceptive advertising for illegally signing up consumers for it’s online credit product. The CFPB is seeking $15 million in consumer redress and $10 million penalty. It’s a sign of things to come in the payments industry.