/Tech5h ago

Regulators View A/B Testing Discussions as Evidence of Ill Intent

741331818.9K

Original post

Marketing: ... I would agree that A/B testing is sort of routine in this department. Compliance: *thunks another file* Was considered evidence of ill intent by the feds. Marketing: HOW. Compliance: You were prepared to think either A or B was true; feds construe worse against you

Patrick McKenzie@patio11

Marketing: This is a very routine conversation between colleagues why are you treating it like it is festooned with landmines. Compliance: Excellent question let me pull out my file of financial institutions fined for having conversations about A/B testing. *thunk onto table*

11:17 AM · Jun 18, 2026 · 2.9K Views

Sentiment

Users appreciate the compliance officer's retained sense of humor amid regulators viewing A/B testing discussions as evidence of ill intent.

Pos

100.0%

Neg

0.0%

1 comments with sentiment.

Cluster Engagement

Digg Deeper

No Digg Deeper questions have been answered for this story yet.

Posts from X

Most Activity

VIEWS6.8KBOOKMARKS8REPLIES2

Patrick McKenzie@patio11

</pastiche>

So I made a factual representation in there, and will offer the following as a down payment on buying that factual representation.

Patrick McKenzie@patio11

You might wonder "Why would the Marketing department care about the difference in subject lines?" and then perhaps wonder "Perhaps they put those subject lines in an A/B test and determined that 'pre-approval' outperforms 'excellent odds of approval'" and GUESS WHAT.

4h6.8K688

LIKES96RETWEETS1

Patrick McKenzie@patio11

Marketing: This email is *horrid.* You know that, right. Compliance: The aesthetics of this email are not a major concern for me. Nobody has been sent to jail for aesthetically unpleasant emails. You understand I personally can go to jail if we screw up, right.

Patrick McKenzie@patio11

Marketing: So I can't help wordsmith this email at all. Compliance: You had an opportunity. But now, to establish our bona fides and perform ingratiatingly, we will go with the safest possible version. Marketing: Your draft? Compliance: Industry best practice.

5h2.6K962

Patrick McKenzie@patio11

Anyhow one of my favorite games, when reading bank marketing copy / emails / etc, is imagining the series of meetings that resulted in sentences shown to customers which are designed to be unhelpful to customers.

Patrick McKenzie@patio11

</pastiche>

So I made a factual representation in there, and will offer the following as a down payment on buying that factual representation.

4h3.9K823

Patrick McKenzie@patio11

5h2.8K822

Patrick McKenzie@patio11

Marketing: Wait what. Compliance: Banks are cowboys, they said. Banks make decisions willy-nilly regardless of the consequences, they said. Said the bankers to jail, they said. So this is the compromise: someone signs up for criminal liability. That is me, among others.

5h3065

Patrick McKenzie@patio11

Marketing: You're a... hostage. Again our own government. Compliance: It is ill-advised to tell a Compliance officer you are aware of hostage-taking because he will have to write a memo about that. Marketing: I'm so sorry. Compliance: No that was Compliance humor. No memo. Yet.

5h1944

MagpAI@WillowChem

@proales @patio11 @mercury Have you not heard the adverts? "Mercury is a fintech, not an FDIC insured bank"

4h231

Paul Roales@proales

@patio11 And yet @mercury does none of this.

So it must all be bad legal, bad compliance, bad employees making up fake rules, or misreading things, or being genuinely incompetent no?

4h50

MagpAI@WillowChem

@proales @patio11 @mercury It is my understanding that a very big part of the fintech value proposition is precisely that they do not have to deal with the things Patrick just described, and that the trade-off is you have limited/no recourse if the fintech goes bust.

4h91

HoarseWhisperer@Hoarsewhisper99

@patio11 I have had unmeasurable fund working with compliance (at an RIA) and it can be frustrating. BUT...I can't help but think society would benefit from social media companies being fined for dark patterns.

4h16

Sabrdance@sabrdance

@patio11 Well I'm glad the compliance officer still retains a sense of humor.

5h8