The chief compliance officer (CCO) of a C-suite is the officer primarily responsible for overseeing and managing regulatory compliance issues within an organization. The CCO typically reports to the

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especial ...

or the chief legal officer. The role has long existed at companies that operate in heavily regulated industries such as

financial services Financial services are the economic services provided by the finance industry, which encompasses a broad range of businesses that manage money, including credit unions, banks, credit-card companies, insurance companies, accountancy companie ...

and healthcare. For other companies, the rash of 2000s accounting scandals, the

Sarbanes–Oxley Act The Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002 is a United States federal law that mandates certain practices in financial record keeping and reporting for corporations. The act, (), also known as the "Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protecti ...

, and the recommendations of the U.S. Federal Sentencing Guidelines have led to additional CCO appointments. Scott Cohen, editor and publisher of ''

Compliance Week ''Compliance Week'', published by Wilmington plc, is a business intelligence service on corporate governance, risk, and compliance that features daily news and analysis, a quarterly print magazine, proprietary databases, industry events, and a var ...

'', dates the proliferation of CCOs to a 2002 speech by SEC commissioner Cynthia Glassman, in which she called on companies to designate a "corporate responsibility officer."">SEC Commissioner's Speech: Sarbanes–Oxley and the Idea of "Good" Governance (Cynthia A. Glassman)
/ref> The responsibilities of the position often include leading enterprise compliance efforts, designing and implementing internal controls, policies and procedures to assure compliance with applicable local, state and federal laws and regulations and third party guidelines; managing audits and investigations into regulatory and compliance issues; and responding to requests for information from regulatory bodies.

References

Corporate governance Regulatory compliance C {{management-stub