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“For tracking litigation, enforcement, and regulatory developments, Compliance Week
should be your prime source.”- Chief Compliance Officer and VP of Legal Affairs, Arrow Electronics
E&C notebook: Compliance should be a business partner, not a blocker
By 
Aaron Nicodemus2025-03-20T13:24:00
Compliance has long been viewed by some as the “Department of No.” What typically happens is a new product or service is being launched, and compliance is brought in at the end of the process. Inevitably, the compliance team finds aspects of the new product or service that violates a law, regulation, or rule, and so the rollout is delayed while the issue is addressed.
Instead of coming in at the end, compliance should insist on having a role earlier in the process, said several panelists at Compliance Week’s Ethics & Compliance Summit, held in Boston March 19-20.
Compliance teams want to be included as partners in the business, rather than internal police officers. They want to be the “Department of How,” as one panelist described it, as in, “Together, how can we roll out this product or service in an ethical and responsible way?” How can we create a service or product that moves the business forward, but within the guardrails of what is compliant?
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