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The stakes continue to get higher for financial industry firms that risk damage to their reputations if they caught doing something illegal or ethically questionable - and many firms are concluding that good compliance is another way to ensure a positive reputation. A report from research and advisory firm Aite Group found 68% of compliance professionals at financial firms worldwide said preserving a company’s good reputation is the top job of a compliance department.

As this responsibility for reputation gets placed in the laps of compliance departments, compliance executives are taking a more prominent role and having a bigger say in setting strategic direction.

• 18% of CCOs in 2016 say they report directly to the board, twice as many as reported in 2015.
• 16% of CCOs in 2016 say they report to legal, a drop from 20% in 2015.
• Sell-side firms are much more likely to be thinking about their reputations than buy-side firms, as a serious trading violation could spell doom.