US banks keep a close eye on compliance

A national study by the ABA reveals compliance duties are becoming a responsibility for all banking employees

ORLANDO, FL - A study by the American Bankers Association (ABA) on compliance professionals, presented at the annual Regulatory Compliance Conference in Orlando, Florida, showed banks are keeping a closer eye on business partners and compliance duties are becoming more a part of the job for all employees.

The number of compliance officers who report having taken steps to determine how well business partners are complying with banking regulations increased by 6% (from 65.4% in 2007 to 71.4% this year). The study also revealed that compliance is increasingly becoming a part of the job description for all bank employees.

The biannual study is conducted by the ABA's Center for Regulatory Compliance with the goal of providing insight into the backgrounds of compliance officers and identifying the different structures under which the role of compliance officer is performed. As part of the survey, more than 700 bank compliance officers returned questionnaires detailing their attitudes on regulatory costs, training, structure and accountability. The survey included representation from a wide cross-section of bank sizes.

Click here to access a portion of the survey results.