Arq Advisory LLC is a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) based in Birmingham, Alabama, providing specialized compliance consulting, regulatory advisory, and program evaluation services to financial institutions, fintechs, mortgage lenders and servicers, and government agencies.

Arq was founded on a simple premise: the institutions that serve consumers deserve advisors who have sat on both sides of the examination table. Our team brings direct regulatory experience to every engagement — not theoretical frameworks, but practical guidance grounded in how examiners actually evaluate compliance programs, assess risk, and make supervisory decisions.

We help clients prepare for and respond to federal and state regulatory examinations, strengthen Compliance Management Systems, conduct targeted testing and analytics, and execute structured remediation when findings occur. Our work is designed to be practical, defensible, and aligned with supervisory expectations.

 

 

Arq combines examiner-level insight with private-sector execution. That means we do not stop at identifying risk. We help clients translate regulatory expectations into governance, controls, testing, remediation, and documentation that can stand up to scrutiny.

We support banks, credit unions, mortgage lenders, mortgage servicers, fintech companies, and government entities across a range of needs, including examination readiness, CMS enhancement, fair lending and consumer compliance reviews, targeted risk assessments, remediation governance, and ongoing strategic advisory support.

What distinguishes Arq is the ability to see compliance issues from both sides: how regulators assess them and what institutions must do operationally to address them in a durable way.

 

 

David Stickney is the Founder & Managing Principal of Arq Advisory LLC, where he advises banks, fintechs, mortgage companies, and other regulated financial services providers on federal consumer compliance strategy, supervisory risk, and regulator-ready execution. He is a former Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Senior Commissioned Compliance Examiner and Examiner-in-Charge (EIC) and previously served as a Senior Director within the Consumer Financial Services practice of an international consulting firm.

His work focuses on helping institutions build, stabilize, and enhance enterprise Compliance Management Systems (CMS), including governance, policy architecture, monitoring and testing, issues management, training, and third-party oversight, particularly in complex, high-change operating environments and fintech-bank partnership models.

He brings a rare combination of frontline federal examination experience and private-sector advisory execution, allowing clients to address compliance risk through a lens that is both supervisory and operational.

 

 

At the CFPB, David led federal supervisory examinations of banks, nonbanks, mortgage lenders, and mortgage servicers, including joint examinations with state regulators. He led examiner teams of 6 to 14 members and managed the full examination lifecycle, from planning and fieldwork through reporting and supervisory communication.

His experience includes identifying, prioritizing, and overseeing remediation governance for more than 30 Matters Requiring Attention (MRAs), aligning corrective actions to evidentiary standards, root-cause analysis, and sustainable CMS enhancement. He routinely presented examination findings, supervisory expectations, and corrective action priorities to boards of directors, executive leadership, and senior control owners, with numerous findings ultimately reflected in the CFPB’s Supervisory Highlights.

His federal consumer compliance experience spans major statutes and implementing regulations, including ECOA (Regulation B), UDAAP, TILA (Regulation Z), RESPA (Regulation X), TRID/TILA-RESPA, HMDA (Regulation C), the CARES Act, deposits and payments compliance under Regulations E and DD, and consumer reporting obligations under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).

 

 

In private practice, David has led multi-disciplinary advisory engagements for financial institutions facing heightened regulatory scrutiny, control weaknesses, large-scale remediation, and operational change. He has advised banks, fintechs, mortgage lending and servicing organizations, and consumer lending and reporting companies on CFPB supervisory expectations, CMS design and enhancement, remediation governance, fair lending monitoring frameworks, and targeted compliance testing.

He has also led and performed BSA/AML reviews, including risk assessments, program evaluations, and related control analysis. His work has included issue taxonomy development, root-cause analysis, validation frameworks, regulator-aligned evidence packages, appraisal bias risk assessments, and escalation and decision protocols. He also served as a workstream lead and subject-matter expert supporting an FDIC fair lending Consent Order involving fintech partnerships.

What distinguishes David’s advisory work is the ability to translate supervisory expectations into governance and control structures that institutions can operationalize, defend, and sustain.

 

 

David is an active thought leader and speaker on regulatory compliance, fintech risk, and supervisory expectations. He has authored and contributed to published compliance commentary and has served as a speaker and panelist for organizations including the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), the American Bankers Association (ABA), Arnold & Porter, and Practising Law Institute (PLI).

His credentials include a CFPB Examiner Commission with a specialization in Mortgage Origination, MBA’s Certified Mortgage Compliance Professional (CMCP), and MBA’s Accredited Mortgage Professional (AMP).

 

 

Clients engage Arq because they need advice that is operationally realistic, defensible under scrutiny, and aligned with how regulators actually assess compliance programs. We bring direct examination experience, private-sector implementation experience, and an ability to move from diagnosis to execution.

Our engagements range from targeted compliance testing and risk assessments to full-scope examination preparation, remediation execution, and ongoing program advisory.

 

 

Arq Advisory LLC is a certified Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business. Founding Arq is part of a broader mission to expand opportunity and support for veterans. When clients engage Arq, they are not only investing in stronger compliance and risk management, but also supporting veteran-focused initiatives tied to our long-term mission.