Mention business regulation and compliance and it's usually Sarbanes-Oxley that comes to mind. But businesses must also comply with labor laws, data privacy and security standards, product labeling requirements, and an increasing array of new regulatory demands. In fact, over-regulation is the top business risk in the perception of CEOs, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers’ 10th Annual Global CEO Survey.
Between 1981 and the end of 2006, more than 122,140 new regulations were introduced in the United States, and the pace shows no signs of slowing or receding. As high-profile corporate scandals continue to make headlines, lawmakers and regulators apply increasing pressure on corporate America by imposing severe penalties on business leaders for failing to ensure adequate risk, compliance and control programs are in place and effective. Many of the new regulations are aimed primarily at traditionally regulated industries, such as financial services, pharmaceuticals, and energy and utilities. But even in so-called “unregulated” industries, regulation and public scrutiny is proliferating. For example, in manufacturing industries, businesses increasingly take on legal or reputational responsibility for the actions and claims of their suppliers.
One of the biggest unknowns is what kind of regulatory burdens or strategic changes will come from the emerging consensus that climate change is a business problem. For most industries, there are already or will be mandatory rules to reduce carbon emissions. Large retailers are beginning to work with suppliers to reduce waste in the supply chain while seeking opportunities to cut costs. Beyond compliance, climate change may result in new business processes or the reconfiguration of manufacturing plants. Because changes in climate have the long-term potential to cause populations to move, fertile land to dry up and frozen land to become fertile, some companies are thinking about where they will get their products' raw materials and where their products will be sold in the future.
How PricewaterhouseCoopers can help you
To gain control over diverse risks through a consistent, coordinated and sustainable strategy, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) helps companies execute on our integrated governance, risk and compliance (iGRC) strategy. The iGRC approach is a principles-guided, step-by-step, logical and scaleable method that integrates governance, risk and compliance activities into a manageable and sustainable process. In addition, PwC provides a common template and framework for reporting upward on performance so that you can establish an enterprise level, all encompassing compliance view for your locations throughout the world.
