Polivec White Paper Challenges Chief Financial Officers to Take Charge of Compliance
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Unique qualifying characteristics include CFO’s enterprise-wide perspective, skill set, and ability to employ technology
Mountain View, Calif. – October 25, 2007 - Responsibility for regulatory compliance belongs in the executive suite, and the executive who should bear that responsibility is the Chief Financial Officer, according to a new white paper from Polivec, Inc.
Polivec will release the paper, Enterprise Compliance: Why the CFO Should be Leading the Charge, at the CFO Technology Summit, which begins on Sunday, October 28 in Chicago.
[UPDATE, November 1, 2007: The white paper is now posted click here to request yours]
The paper points out that CFOs are the best qualified of all executives to evaluate the return on investment (ROI) of initiatives such as compliance management. The CFO’s familiarity with technology platforms and standards-based implementations are cited as primary reasons for assigning him or her the highest compliance role, whether or not the company also employs a Chief Compliance Officer.
Extensive Research, Repeated Surveys Crystallized Company’s Thinking
“Scott Leibs made a number of excellent points about Governance, Risk, and Compliance in his recent article in CFO,” said Polivec vice president Tom Grubb. “He writes that many companies still don’t know what GRC means or how far it should extend. This has led these companies to limit the scope of the compliance technologies they have employed. He also notes that a single GRC technology platform can be very useful, particularly for companies that emphasize operations risk management.
“Our research corroborates these points and a lot more of what Scott writes,” continued Grubb, citing the company’s recent survey of delegates to the 2007 Annual Business Ethics & Compliance Conference. That survey revealed that professionals responsible for corporate compliance felt that better technology and reporting tools were the best way to help them do their jobs.
In a more broadly based and independently conducted study in July 2007, Polivec ascertained that there is much disagreement among organizations about which department or executive should have ultimate responsibility for compliance.
“Directing the compliance function requires someone with an enterprise-wide perspective and appreciation for the company’s culture, along with a high degree of authority and autonomy. At the same time, the job demands familiarity with actual operations and employee behaviors in every sector of the company.
“We’ve come to believe that CFOs are the logical choices for this important task. We are looking forward to discussing our white paper with many of them at the CFO Technology Summit next week,” Grubb concluded.