WP 2017-4.0
William S. Laufer
A regulatory milestone in the United States that seemed impossible to reach nearly a decade ago is now in sight. There soon will be as many enterprise-wide risk, audit, legal, and compliance professionals on the payroll of corporations in the United States as municipal police officers keeping our streets safe. J.P. Morgan, for example, supports more compliance, risk, and fortress control professionals than all uniformed NYPD officers, and more than three times as many FBI special agents across all U.S. field offices. At the same time, corporate regulatory budgets, in total, appear to dwarf all local, state, and federal law enforcement expenditures.3 The regulatory spend at large banks represents up to twenty percent of their operating cost base, making some big city police department budgets look pale if not anemic.