The KPMG 2023 CCO Survey: Anticipating more scrutiny draws on the perspectives of 240 Chief Ethics & Compliance Officers (CCOs) representative of the largest companies operating in six industry sectors who provided insights into their current focus and two-year outlook on key areas of ethics and compliance including regulatory complexity, operational challenges, ethics and firm culture, sustainability/ESG and evolving technology. See highlights below and download the full survey report for details, key drivers, and actions leaders can take related to these key findings.
Pressures on compliance from boards and regulators
Most CCOs expect the focus on compliance to increase based on expanding regulatory expectations and scrutiny, with the greatest pressure to enhance coming from their boards and regulators.
Pressure to Enhance Compliance
New regulatory requirements top the list of looming challenges
CCOs say that new regulatory requirements pose the greatest challenge to their compliance efforts over the next two years followed by data analytics/predictive modeling and attracting capable talent.
Top Compliance Challenges
Industry regulations in focus for compliance improvement
Consistent with the challenges to meet increased regulatory scrutiny and expectations, most CCOs say they are targeting improvement in processes related to industry-specific regulations.
Top Areas to Improve
Sustainability/ESG compliance in development
About half of CCOs say they are in the process of implementing Sustainability/ESG compliance programs, though nearly as many say they are still in the planning and development stages. Key areas of focus include monitoring and testing, regulatory scanning, and policy management.
Read the full report to learn more about these findings and steps companies can take to avoid design and implementation challenges in building out an ESG compliance program.
Maturation
Compliance technology and data analytics are top areas to enhance
The majority of CCOs name technology and data analytics as the top areas to enhance in the next two years. Related budget increases will focus on cybersecurity/data privacy, data analytics, process automation, and AI.
Accountability and talent shortages/retention top workforce woes
Despite economic uncertainties, most CCOs anticipate increasing the number of full-time employees (FTE) in the next year–even though attracting and retaining talent are key workforce challenges within this area.
Compliance FTEs
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Jonathan Ho
Partner, Head of Risk, Advisory and Head of Infrastructure, Government & Healthcare
KPMG in Singapore
