Transforming compliance

Recent decades have witnessed a notable trend in corporate compliance and governance oversight. Many companies have made considerable progress in strengthening their corporate compliance programs. That progress has been achieved, in part, in response to the Federal Sentencing Guidelines. In the wake of policy developments, compliance programs, and the chief ethics and compliance officers who helm them, have gained in visibility and prominence. The voice of the compliance officer is increasingly being heard at board and C-suite levels, in part as the tactical head of an empowered compliance effort and also as a focal point for building an ethical culture within the corporation. With these developments in mind, RAND convened a symposium on May 28, 2014, entitled "Transforming Compliance: Emerging Paradigms for Boards, Management, Compliance Officers, and Government." The objective was to stimulate a forward-looking conversation about compliance as a field, factors that are likely to contribute to its transformational change, and practical implications for key stakeholder groups. Several of the participants presented white papers on selected transformational pressures now affecting the compliance field. The following session of the symposium involved a moderated discussion on the emerging paradigm for compliance programs of the future and the broad implications that can be gleaned from transformative factors now operating on the field. The final session was a moderated discussion of related concerns and next steps from the varied perspectives of boards, executives, chief ethics and compliance officers, and policymakers. These proceedings summarize the discussions and include the white papers --