17 February 2022 - How to manage compliance risk and stay out of the headlines

Compliance risk has traditionally been the poor cousin of longer-established risks to financial services organisations, such as credit and market risk. But that’s no longer true. Recent high-profile compliance risk failures have made headlines, with businesses having to pay record fines, board chairs and CEOs being forced to resign, and reputations being damaged, resulting in reduced trust from customers and the community.

What is compliance risk?

Broadly speaking, compliance risk relates to an organisation’s ability to comply with the laws, rules, regulations and standards (both external and internal) which govern its operations – including voluntary industry standards and codes of conduct that an organisation elects to comply with – and the consequences that may flow if it fails to do so.