Implementation of the compliance principles

In April 2005, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision released a document entitled Compliance and the compliance function in banks, which set out high-level principles on the management of compliance risks in banks. As a follow-up to the release of the paper, the Committee asked its Accounting Task Force to assess the degree to which the compliance principles have been implemented, as well as to review recent compliance-related incidents and challenges facing the industry. The Committee is now publishing a summary of that assessment based on a survey in which 21 jurisdictions participated.

The survey results indicate that, in a substantial majority of respondent jurisdictions, banks manage the compliance function as an important risk management control function and consistent - to varying degrees - with the 2005 Compliance paper. In many cases respondents to the survey cited the Compliance paper as an important impetus for improvements, even where significant non-compliance incidents occurred after its introduction.

The survey also revealed that the high-level principles described in the Compliance paper remain relevant and are reflected in current supervisory frameworks (or in reforms to supervisory frameworks currently under way). The publication of the survey results is intended to assist those members of the supervisory community that are still working to improve their compliance frameworks. It does so by providing a range of practice and by sharing information about the solutions developed to address the main issues faced by jurisdictions that have implemented the high-level principles. The publication of the survey results are for illustrative purposes only and the examples provided are not intended to be prescriptive.