Compliance officers under the gun.

• Position: Business & Finance

Compliance officers are feeling particularly vulnerable, according to the Thomson Reuters Personal Liability Report, which finds the near-universal view that personal liability in financial services is increasing. Regulators more and more are targeting individuals rather than firms, and compliance officers foresee themselves as the focus of accountability rather than CEOs. The findings also highlight an expectation that regulatory focus towards senior managers will be extended internationally.

Comments were received from Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australia, Europe, and the Middle East. Respondents and participants represented banks, brokers, insurers, and asset managers ranging in size from small to international conglomerates, including the majority of global systemically important financial institutions.

'These findings fall in line with the trends we've witnessed for the past several years," says coauthor Stacey English, head of Regulatory Intelligence at Thomson Reuters, New York. "Our annual Cost of Compliance surveys continually show more compliance professionals are worried their personal liability will Increase with each coming year, and this report further reinforces how rapidly the trend is moving."

Key findings from the report include:

* Some 93% of practitioners expected the personal liability of compliance officers to increase in the next year. Meanwhile, 64% anticipate a significant increase.

* The focus on accountability in new regimes is exacerbated by lack of oversight from senior managers. Forty-nine percent reported senior managers "do not really know what Is going on in their business."

* An expectation that the regulatory focus on holding senior managers accountable will be extended internationally; 64% of respondents expect that regulatory regimes introducing individual accountability will be...