Compliance officers in the spotlight amid regulatory changes

KPMG 2023 Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer Survey

I expect more control

Estimated reading time: 3-4 minutes

In a year marked by increasing regulatory intensity, the role of the chief ethics and compliance officer (CCO) has never been more important. Once considered a nice-to-have by some organizations, an ethics and compliance function is now essential to helping organizations identify, measure and mitigate risk.

As we detailed in a recent KPMG study, there are many risks that need to be monitored. CCOs are navigating a range of competing issues that include new regulatory guidance on multiple fronts; increased enforcement of existing measures; stops and starts environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting; and complex considerations of emerging technologies in areas such as artificial intelligence (AI) and generative AI.

Our new report, the KPMG Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer Survey, collects feedback from 240 CMOs at large companies and provides insight into how they manage short- and long-term planning, solve operational challenges and create an ethical company culture . Let’s take a closer look at what we found.

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The pace and scale of regulatory action has quickly become a dominant theme in our research as compliance officers adapt to an expanding “regulatory scope.”

But rather than viewing this as a one-time cyclical increase and waiting for the storm to pass, many CCOs we surveyed are tackling the challenges head-on today and preparing for more sustained, increased volume of compliance activities over the long term.

Here’s a quick overview of the three most important findings from our survey: