A compliance analyst is a professional who is responsible for making sure that a company adheres to legal standards, meets regulatory requirements and follows internal policies. Organisations these days face more public pressure to be compliant than before, and an analyst plays a vital role in preventing reputational damage or financial penalties for non-compliance.
Why Do Organisations Need A Compliance Analyst?
It is common for regulatory requirements to change often, and businesses that don’t stay up-to-date with them can face penalties as a result. The compliance analyst ensures that this doesn’t happen by maintaining compliance and protecting the organisation’s reputation.
The Role Of A Compliance Analyst
Companies are expected to comply with specific external regulations and internal policies. This guide will take a closer look at the key tasks that a compliance analyst is responsible for on a day-to-day basis.
Monitor Changes In Regulations
Compliance analysts need to constantly check for any changes in laws and regulations relevant to their organisation’s industry on both local and international levels. If there is a regulatory change, the analyst will be responsible for determining how it will impact the company’s current operations or policies. From this, they can establish whether or not existing compliance measures will be sufficient or if they need to be adjusted accordingly. The analyst can then advise senior management within the company about the changes, who can then filter the information to the rest of the organisation.
Creating And Implementing Company Policies And Procedures
Taking the regulatory requirements into consideration, the analyst can then update existing policies or develop entirely new ones if required. Working together with senior levels of management, they will implement the policies throughout the organisation and ensure that all employees are aware of and understand them. This can be achieved through training sessions or an internal manual to be distributed.
Regularly Completing Compliance Audits
Compliance analysts will periodically conduct internal audits to assess a company’s compliance to see if the correct procedures are being followed. In this assessment, they will identify any potential areas of non-compliance and recommend ways to address them before they escalate into further issues. Once the audit has been completed, the analyst can compile the results into a report for senior management to review and use as the basis for any decision-making regarding compliance.
Resolving Compliance Problems
The compliance analyst has to address any compliance issues once they have been identified. This would entail gathering evidence, communicating with those involved and assessing their findings. They can then formulate plans to correct the non-compliance to prevent it from happening again in the future.
Serve As A Liaison To Regulatory Bodies
Another task of a compliance analyst is to maintain open communication with external auditors and regulatory bodies, as they will be the primary point of contact between those and the organisation itself. This includes promptly responding to enquiries, submitting information when requested and facilitating any external audit requests.