Strunk

About Joel Lawrence

Joel Lawrence has more than 15 years of financial industry experience, where he has gained invaluable knowledge of managing projects, resources and staff in an effective and efficient manner. Through his years of experience he as worked in lending, asset management, sourcing and compliance. Joel is highly focused with a comprehensive understanding of service level agreements, vendor management and regulatory risk. He has a consistent and proven track record of successfully employing best business practices that improve efficiency, reduce operating cost while increasing performance.

Joel is a graduate of Cumberland University where he played basketball and The University of Alabama where he received his M.S. (Global Business Management).

Joel and his wife, Beth, have two kids, a son Sean and daughter Sophie.

Entries by Joel Lawrence

How Can Strunk’s Vendor Manager software help you understand which vendors receive customer data and what type of data they receiv

June 15, 2022/in Banks, Credit Unions, Financial Services, Markets, Vendor Manager/by Joel Lawrence

Vendor Management has been a concerning issue for financial institutions for some time. Regulatory agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission, the Office of Foreign Assets Control, and the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council are scrutinizing how financial institutions (FIs) manage their outsourced vendors. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has declared that an institution […]

Overdraft Privilege Provides a Solution for Charging Multiple NSF Fees

May 18, 2022/in Banks, Compliance, Credit Unions, Financial Services, Markets, Overdraft Privilege, Perspectives, Vendor Manager/by Joel Lawrence

When a merchant transaction is presented for payment from a consumer account and is refused due to the customer’s insufficient funds to cover the transaction, financial institutions typically charge an NSF fee. When a merchant tries to present the same transaction again in order to recover the denied funds, he or she may be charged […]

The Importance of Employee Training for your Overdraft Program

April 20, 2022/in Banks, Compliance, Credit Unions, Financial Services, Markets, Overdraft Privilege, Perspectives/by Joel Lawrence

Does your front-line staff have a biased opinion regarding overdraft privilege and present it in a negative tone? Is your front-line staff having a hard time explaining overdraft privilege to your customers/members and not really sure what to say to them? If you haven’t had a chance to listen to your employees’ present overdraft privilege […]

The Importance of an Inherent Risk Survey

March 16, 2022/in Banks, Credit Unions, Financial Services, Markets, Vendor Manager/by Joel Lawrence

One of the most crucial and challenging parts of vendor management is managing the risk associated with each of your vendors. There are numerous risks that may arise from a financial institution’s use of vendors. Understanding the vendors inherent risk will help your financial institution to categorize and differentiate the risk for each of your […]

The consumer case for overdraft privilege

March 2, 2022/in Banks, Credit Unions, Financial Services, Markets, Overdraft Privilege, Perspectives/by Joel Lawrence

The last few years lawmakers have put extensive focus on overdraft privilege programs and are pushing for additional guidance on the way financial institutions handle overdrafts. It seems that the lawmakers that are pushing for changes only have one way of looking at overdraft privileges, so The American Bankers Association (ABA) wrote a response to […]

Overdraft Protection In a New Light

January 26, 2022/in Banks, Credit Unions, Financial Services, Markets, Overdraft Privilege, Perspectives/by Joel Lawrence

Over the past year, there has been a great deal of scrutiny surrounding overdraft privilege programs. Many news articles focus on the potential negative aspects of overdraft privilege programs. They make the generalization that users of these programs are not sufficiently educated on what usage truly means and that users are typically lower-income. A 2019 […]

What are vendor reviews and why are they important

December 15, 2021/in Vendor Manager/by Joel Lawrence

Vendor review is a process by which a business can evaluate the quality of the vendor performance while also understanding any potential changes that the vendor may have when providing the product or service for the business. A vendor review process will assess a vendor’s capacity to maintain effective and appropriate security practices and other […]

Finding the way through Regulatory Requirements

November 17, 2021/in Banks, Compliance, Credit Unions, Financial Services, Markets, Overdraft Privilege, Perspectives/by Joel Lawrence

Recently, there has been a lot of confusion in regards to what is required for non-FDIC regulated financial institutions regarding their overdraft privilege program. Strunk has received several questions from our non-FDIC regulated clients (financial institutions that are regulated by either OCC, Federal Reserve or NCUA) regarding findings from either auditors or examiners. It seems […]

New Due Diligence Guidance for Community Bank on FinTech Firms

September 8, 2021/in Banks, Compliance, Credit Unions, Financial Services, Markets, Vendor Manager/by Joel Lawrence

On August 27, 2021, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, FDIC, and the OCC published new guidance aimed at community banks that are looking to expand their reach and service new customer bases through partnerships with financial technology companies (FinTech). While aimed at community banks, the regulators said the fundamental concepts could also […]