The latest International Business Attitudes to Compliance survey released by Control Risks, a global risk and strategic consulting firm, has found that companies large and small are spending little on compliance, indicating that boards still consider the function as a cost rather than a benefit. This is despite a greater determination by European governments to introduce legislation aimed at holding companies and their directors more keenly to account for non-compliance, as well as a greater willingness to enforce those rules already in existence.
Based on the responses of 1,000 legal and compliance professionals globally, the survey shows that one in four (26 percent) companies with more than 10,000 employees are devoting less than U.S.$25 per person, per year, to compliance. Similarly, 28 percent of large companies have compliance teams of just one to five people. “While there is no standard benchmark to show that a specific size or budget is ‘enough,’ these compliance teams lack the resources they need to perform effectively,” says the report.
