Regulators and government agencies understand the value of corporate compliance programs to advancing their mission. Some seek to empower the standing of chief compliance officers within their organizations, while others use speeches to call for proactive compliance being a priority.

These proclamations are viewed positively within a compliance community often facing barriers toward achieving their desired impact at their companies. But the words lose sting when the regulators and government agencies themselves aren’t practicing what they preach.

Seeing the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) being rightly criticized after a third-party independent review concluded the regulator “failed to provide a workplace safe from sexual harassment, discrimination, and other interpersonal misconduct” because of its “patriarchal, insular, and risk-averse culture,” I can’t help but wonder: How much of this could have been prevented if it had an empowered CCO dictating its ethical standards?