Descrption:
Federation of Egyptian Banks (FEB) has recently invited Mr. Hany Abou-El-Fotouh, Assistant General Manager and Head of Compliance, Oman International Bank (OIB) to make a presentation to the Compliance Officers' Committee about effective compliance functions in banks.
Abou-El-Fotouh defined compliance as "a system which is designed to ensure that the bank does, as far as is reasonably practical, what is necessary to “get it right” in terms of its legal obligations." He explained that "effective compliance is crucial for banks and it is critical to the success on any bank and supports strong relations with regulators. A failure to comply may involve serious results, including large fines and even imprisonment. In addition, banks should keep trust of stakeholders"
"The best definition of compliance function has been outlined by Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS)" he said. compliance function is "An independent function that identifies, assesses, advises on, monitors and reports on the bank’s compliance risk, that is, the risk of legal or regulatory sanctions, financial loss, or loss to reputation a bank may suffer as a result of its failure to comply with all applicable laws, regulations, codes of conduct and standards of good practice”. Speaking on this definition, Abou-El-Fotouh remarked "it is the backbone of the job description of all compliance officers and all compliance-related activities should be tied to it" |