Chapter 3The Compliance Contract
Chapters 4–9 of this text provide guidance on the key elements of the ‘world’ within which your firm operates, and give you an idea of the type of knowledge that you and your team should have and the activities your department should engage in if you are to run a successful Compliance regime within your firm. Once you have assimilated and understood all of the above, it's time to spread the good news to the rest of the firm! As we know all too well, Compliance is never going to be the most popular department within the firm (often on a par with HR and marginally more popular than Internal Audit), so the more you can do to promote your services to your colleagues in other parts of the organization the better. As the saying goes, ‘if you sling enough mud some of it will stick’, and although this is normally used in a negative context, it also works in reverse. If you say enough positive things about the Compliance function, then some of them will eventually stick in the minds of your colleagues. You had better just be certain that all the positive things you say are true!
As with most things, there are several ways of promoting Compliance and in this instance, it is best to use a combination of all of them! Some of the ways of ensuring that you are understood are noted below:
- Make sure that you get Board and senior management buy-in about the extent of your responsibilities and the nature of your activities.
- Prepare a Compliance Mission Statement ...