The executive in charge of ensuring that an organization complies with both internal and external policies and regulations is known as the chief compliance officer, or CCO. He is in charge of the development and implementation of procedures that facilitate compliance, and he collaborates with other executives to ensure compliance across the board. He might also be in charge of making sure the company has the resources it needs to research and track external laws, regulations, and industry standards.
Many businesses and non-profit organizations must ensure that they are operating in compliance with business laws, such as financial responsibility laws, consumer protection laws, and employment laws. It’s easy for accountability processes to fail in a large organization, and for a company to fall out of compliance with these laws. The chief compliance officer can serve as a point of contact for questions about compliance processes and can ensure that processes in one area of the company are coordinated with processes in other areas. A chief compliance officer may actually establish company-wide policies that comply with external requirements imposed industry organizations and government agencies.
Research and monitoring of regulatory and industry changes is an important part of good compliance management. A research director or corporate librarian may report directly to the chief financial officer and be in charge of a team of compliance administrators or researchers who keep track of laws and regulations on a regular basis. Individual departments may be informed of these changes and asked to develop policies that meet their needs while also complying with the new rules. Changes in organizational processes in response to regulatory and industry changes may be developed directly the CCO or his staff, or individual departments may be informed of these changes and asked to develop policies that meet their needs while also complying with the new rules.
Chief compliance officers may also be in charge of conducting regular compliance audits across the company. These audits should, in theory, reveal any areas where compliance is lax before a major problem arises. Internal audits also demonstrate good faith to government regulators in the event that a company is investigated.
The chief compliance officer may also be responsible for ensuring that company-wide or corporate policies are followed. Employee benefits, harassment policies, and other internal matters must frequently comply with both external and internal government regulations. Although the chief compliance officer may not create these internal policies, he or she will most likely review them for compliance and establish the procedures for implementing and enforcing them.