Sometimes it makes sense to organize audit questions by regulation. Compliance audits are often organized this way, with names of regulations comprising audit category names and audit questions clustering within those categories. This organization can be reinforced by audit category codes such as TIL, ECOA, CLA, FCRA and so on (hence, question number ‘TIL-012a’). This approach makes it quick and easy to report on regulation-specific audits using Cogent.
But frequently, audit questions are organized by category of defect, such as Assets, Credit, Liabilities, and Income. Traditional post-closing audits continue to be organized this way, as confirmed by FNMA recently (see recent blog post) In such a case, how do you report on specific regulations when a regulator comes in for an audit? The answer is via Categories.
Cogent’s loan audit software allows any audit question to be tagged with one or more Categories. Standard Categories include ‘area tested’, ‘regulation’, and ‘federal/state’. Additional Categories may also be created. With Category tagging, it is a simple matter to include in a report only those audit questions that are relevant to a regulatory audit. Access Category tables via your system’s Audit Lookup Table Manager under Administrator Tools.