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Chicago Compliance Liability Risk – Gauging Your Compliance Liability Risk

By: Ted Banks

Gauging your Illinois and Chicago compliance liability risk for your company or organization is paramount. Compliance personnel are getting more and more anxious regarding personal liability as the economy moves forward. It seems as things progress, we only see an increasing number of compliance horror stories in the media. Ignorance of regulatory compliance or a failure to adhere to them, regarding your Chicago compliance liability risk, could ultimately destroy your business. However, there are actions you can take to severely reduce your exposure to these risks, reduce your liability in the event of a failure, or even completely avoid being held personally liable.

Learning from Other People’s Mistakes

We have all heard countless stories about corruption in business. At the heart of every fraud or corruption scandal is a failure to promote ethical decision making and a failure to implement adequate controls that prevent dishonest employees from stealing, lying, or disregarding the rules.

Take the WorldCom scandal, for example. Through dubious accounting techniques that disregarded accounting regulations, the company was able to give the appearance that they had $11 billion dollars more in assets than they really did. And the result of these unethical dealings? Over 30,000 people lost their sole means of income and suffered unemployment, investors lost approximately $180 billion dollars, the CFO was sentenced to 25 years in prison, and the company went bankrupt. For more information on Chicago Compliance Programs.

This is only one of hundreds of similar stories. What we need to take away from these examples of fraud is the importance of corporate compliance programs to reduce liability. A failure to control internal procedures with checks and balances can result in the destruction of your company. Compliance liability is no laughing matter, and compliance standards in Chicago are no less stringent than other cities’ standards.

Compliance Processes Demand Your Attention in Chicago, Illinois

Chicago Compliance Liability Risk and compliance with today’s standards is challenging to say the least. Each industry has its own constraints and regulations, but a failure to adhere to the rules could create corporate liability or even individual liability. You need to be certain you have staff that do the following:

  • Write HR policies to ensure that federal and state laws are adhered to regarding documentation and personnel management
  • Project management coordination to meet imposed regulatory deadlines
  • Collaborating with external entities to transfer data and information
  • Compliance with the UCC and other commercial regulations
  • Implementing adequate controls to prevent internal fraud

Evolving Compliance Liability Threats in Chicago, Illinois

There’s no way around it. Compliance threats are always changing, and one of the newest compliance risks revolves around information technology security. With each passing week, cyber criminals are finding new ways to exploit security systems to gain access to sensitive customer information such as monetary transfers, social security numbers, and even health records. Furthermore, it is becoming more popular for clients to file lawsuits against organizations that have experienced a security breach.

There are numerous security regulations for financial institutions that impose stringent security technologies as a requirement. Data encryption standards not only protect you from government scrutiny, but they also protect your clients. Though security regulations are a newer concept than fraud mitigation controls, they still pose extremely dangerous risks to your organization.

If Your business needs assistance with compliance, or you need assistance with your Chicago Compliance Liability Risk, contact Compliance & Competition Consultants today