CARY, N.C. -

The green check mark I received through the online testing platform of the National Automotive Finance Association’s Consumer Credit Compliance Certification Program sure did look pretty this past weekend.

Instructors Patty Covington and Eric Johnson closed the Module 1 training session by encouraging students not to become frustrated if they didn’t secure an examination score high enough on the first attempt to proceed through the next segments. When the website indicated I received a score high enough above the 80-percent requirement on my first try, my joyful reaction looked similar to what you might see from an athlete at any level of competition who collected a victory.

To my fellow students who completed the opening module as well, I offer my sincere congratulations. I am presuming some of you had similar reaction because of the “firehose” of information we had to digest.

Now Modules 2 and 3 are ahead of me and the rest of the students currently enrolled in the program. The Hudson Cook partners provide great instruction, and the NAF Association offers resources that rival anything in another academic setting. However, recent regulatory developments published by SubPrime Auto Finance News provided some valuable study reinforcement, too.

First, the Department of Justice and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in separate actions penalized Wells Fargo to the tune of more than $24 million for what the agencies determined to be misdeeds involving the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) and repossessing vehicles.

When spelling out what Wells Fargo did, the regulators reiterated main points of the SCRA, which is becoming a headline-generating statute as proven by the developments involving HSBC Finance Corp., and COPOCO Community Credit Union, an institution in Michigan.

The SCRA components mentioned in the regulatory announcements included:

—Provide the 6-percent interest rate limit to servicemember obligations or liabilities incurred before military service.

—Accurately disclose servicemembers’ active duty status to the court via affidavits prior to evicting those servicemembers.

—Obtain court orders prior to repossessing servicemembers’ vehicles.

Remembering those news items — and what the regulators said — helped me to pick correct answers for SCRA questions.

Furthermore, the Federal Trade Commission recently filed a lawsuit against nine Los Angeles-area dealerships for using a wide range of “deceptive and unfair” sales and financing practices. What the FTC is alleging is nearly the opposite of how Patty and Eric explained compliant advertising, financing and delivery, including:

—Violating the FTC Act by charging some consumers for add-ons without their consent or falsely claiming the products were required or were free.

—Violating the Truth In Lending Act and Regulation Z, and the Consumer Leasing Act and Regulation M, for failing to clearly disclose required credit information and lease information in their advertising.

Again, these dealers haven’t been convicted, but the allegations are counter to what the program describes in detail and asks students to remember.

Now other program participants and I embark on deeper study of the alphabet soup of federal and state regulations that govern how auto financing is to be completed. TILA, ECOA, UCC, UDAAP, CFPB, FTC, SCRA, FCRA, DMV. They’re all in the regulatory lexicon that dealerships and finance companies need to understand for necessary compliance.

For industry professionals still considering whether to embark the training journey, let me reiterate that the NAF Association has put together a superb program. Executive director Jack Tracey and member services coordinator Cindy Sly can explain in more detail about how to get enrolled and why operations large and small can benefit. Just go to their website at www.nafassociation.com.

Or just watch the headlines distributed by SubPrime Auto Finance News. I have no doubt more enforcement actions are coming soon judging by the volume arriving this year alone. In my humble opinion, it’s further necessitating dealerships and finance companies to have as many trained professionals as their budgets can allow.

In the meantime, some of my upcoming evenings will be spent with my laptop, poring over regulations and looking to secure more of those pretty, green check marks.

Nick Zulovich is the senior editor of SubPrime Auto Finance News and is sharing updates about his journey to through the NAF Association’s Consumer Credit Compliance Certification Program. He can be reached at nzulovich@cherokeemediagroup.com.