Why Compliance is so interesting?
This article is dedicated to all the Compliance Officers who have passion and dedication to do what’s right!
The goal of Compliance is to keep a firm out of regulatory trouble. And believe it or not, it’s not all glitz and glamor. Sometimes we need to get our point across to different areas of an organization. It requires us to use our influence and persuasion skills. These skills are key.
Compliance has been called the police, anti-establishment folks (mostly from the front office) and other names that I won’t repeat here. People don’t realize that Compliance is so much more than rules & regulations. There are so many interesting topics that we often overlook. How can money laundering, fraud, bribery & corruption be boring? It’s not!
How many of you have watched the movie “Catch me if you can?” Believe it or not, this movie was about Bank Fraud. Frank Abagnale Jr. performed cons worth millions of dollars. He posed as a Pan American World Airways pilot, a Georgia doctor, and a Louisiana parish prosecutor. I can’t make this up! We can learn a lot from stories like this, especially people who work within banking operations.
This is just one example of how Compliance can be very interesting. And believe it or not, there are so many more stories. The good thing about working in Compliance is that you never run out of content. There are always people, firms and criminal types that come into the cross hairs of law enforcement and regulators. Compliance is here to discuss these problems to our organization so we can learn from others misfortune.
What if we encountered an issue that other organizations have incurred? Can I find a story to tell? Of course. Regardless of the area of Compliance, there have been infractions along the way in each and every area. We need to be motivated to do the necessary research and uncover these stories.
How about bribing a public official? I recall having an issue at prior firm where someone in sales was accused of bribing a public official in order for our firm to win a sizeable bid. I wanted to find an instance where something similar occurred and I found it.
In May 2014, 14 high-ranking officials of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (“FIFA”) were arrested and charged with 47 counts of crimes including racketeering, money laundering, and wire fraud conspiracies, among other similar crimes. Enforcement officials claim that the group of defendants engaged in a 24-year scheme of enriching themselves through bribery, kickbacks, tax evasion, and other corruption in international soccer. The defendants, who hail from the U.S. and South America, Visit us at Highriskeducation.com committed these illegal acts to obtain lucrative marketing and media rights to international soccer tournaments all over the world. Source: Bribery - Definition, Examples, Cases (legaldictionary.net)
The reason I brought up this particular example is due to the timing of the world cup. It worked out perfectly. I told the story and related it to our situation. I could see the interest based on verbal clues and body language. Story telling is one only part but relating it to our audience is where you capture people’s attention is another.
I can go on and on about movies portraying real life stories (or as Hollywood says it, its based on real life events) and circumstances that occurred at other institutions. There is so much material we can work with. We need to utilize this content effectively and create an atmosphere of trust and respect.
A message to members of Compliance:
As I’ve illustrated with these two examples, the material is there! You need to leverage it and be a storyteller with a point. If there is not point, its like telling a joke without a punchline. Good story tellers understand the content and can convey it in a matter that gets the point across.
Take the extra time and do what’s best for your stakeholders. Remember that we can always improve our culture of Compliance and reduce this risk in our atmosphere in different ways.
If you have a chance, give your compliance officer a hug! They deserve it!
About the Author
Justin Muscolino, CEO, High Risk Education
Justin brings over 20 years of wide-arranging experience in compliance, training and regulations. Most recently, he served as Head of Compliance Training at Bank of China where he led the compliance training function and created and monitored the annual training plan through a thorough training needs analysis. Previously he served as Macquarie Group’s Head of Americas Compliance Training and JPMorgan Chase’s Compliance Training Manager. Justin also worked for FINRA, a US regulator, where he created Examiner University to train examiners on how to perform their function.
