TUCSON, Ariz. -

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is insistent that finance companies have documentation verifying the federal compliance of their service providers. For managers that use Allied Finance Adjusters member repossession agencies to find and recover vehicles, a new partnership with Vendor Transparency Solutions is aimed at enhancing what a finance company can show federal regulators.

For some time, AFA maintained its compliance module on its website that assisted its members in sharing compliance documents with finance companies. On Wednesday, AFA and VTS finalized a partnership that designed to take that process many steps higher.

With the introduction of VTS Basic, AFA can now offer our members a platform geared to reach a higher level of compliance. This new software can provide members with more functionality and features, including the VTS Marketing Module, VTS Complaint Handling Module and VTS Continued Education Module to give members exposure to finance companies that utilize VTS Professionals.

“Since the inception of the CFPB, AFA has positioned its members to be the most educated operators in the recovery industry. Working with VTS gives AFA proven tools to show the lending community that AFA and its members are taking compliance seriously,” said James Osselburn, second vice president of Allied Finance Adjusters.

Through the partnership, AFA members can receive exclusive discounts on all VTS services, which consist of VTS Professional, VTS Basic and ongoing continued education.

Additionally, AFA has contracted VTS to perform the site inspections and other due diligence required to become a new member of Allied Finance Adjusters. AFA officials insisted that utilizing VTS to perform these inspections is important when it comes to vetting new members as “the high caliber of VTS will insure to the lending institutions that the members of AFA are held to a higher standard.”

New members of AFA will receive an even greater discount on VTS Basic, should they choose to participate.

Allied Finance Adjusters is one of the leaders among national trade associations in CFPB compliance training and education through its relationship with Recovery Specialist Insurance Group (RSIG). To date, 90 percent of AFA members have completed this training.

Vendor Transparency Solutions president Max Pineiro explained this partnership demonstrates AFA's commitment to be the largest group of bonded, compliant service providers in the nation, which can create new revenue opportunities for members by creating a one-stop shop for all financial institutions, banks, credit unions, law firms and replevin brokers.

Pineiro added the AFA Education Committee will be working closely alongside VTS on its continuing education module to introduce new ideas on education for AFA members and VTS subscribers.

“There is no question that mastering compliance requires a team effort. That team includes the financial institutions, their contracted service providers and the leaders of the industry trade associations that assist their members through valuable tools and benefits,” Pineiro said.

“The most valuable tools today are those that are closely related to compliance and compliance monitoring,” he continued.

“We at VTS applaud Allied Finance Adjusters for taking on the leadership role in the industry and assuring that asset recovery businesses throughout the country have access to the necessary tools needed to achieve compliance," Pineiro went on to say.