Compliance departments' role expanding.

• Position: COMPLIANCE

More regulation means more demand for compliance and on the compliance department. According to speakers at the Compliance Week 2012 conference in June, organizations are finally realizing the value of their data. Consequently protecting that data properly is becoming a significant element of their business strategy.

To whom will the chief executive officer (CEO) and board of directors turn to ensure this is happening? Not surprisingly, the compliance officer.

According to PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PWC) and Compliance Week's "State of Compliance 2012" report, the "role of the compliance department is evolving into something akin to a primary care doctor: the physician who sets broad goals of health, monitors overall vital signs, and--most importantly--coordinates more specific medical needs with the specialists. Likewise, the chief compliance officer steers the corporation's efforts to manage compliance and other organizational risks, while ultimate responsibility for those tasks still resides (or at least, should reside) with the business units that have the resources and expertise to respond."

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The obstacles to compliance becoming a proactive, fully integrated function are fragmented IT systems, tight budgets, shifting and growing regulatory requirements, and the challenge of proving the compliance program's effectiveness, according to the PWC report.

One purpose of the annual survey, which was conducted in early 2012 and directed to senior-level compliance officers at U.S. corporations with annual revenue of $1 billion or more, is to learn what types of issues are dominating the compliance department's time. This year the survey found the compliance department is now involved to some degree in "virtually every risk...