MADISON, Wis. - Compliance-related issues, and even core questions surrounding “ethics” have moved to the front of the stage for many businesses, including credit unions. For those reasons and others CUNA Mutual Group recently named Steve Koslow as senior vice president, chief ethics and compliance officer.
Koslow had previously served as a director in the governance, risk, and compliance group for PricewaterhouseCoopers. Below, Mr. Koslow talks with the Credit Union Journal about the new position.
CUJ: Why was this position created and what does it entail?
Koslow: This position was created to recognize CUNA Mutual’s changing and evolving needs in the ethics and compliance areas.
As the company continues its transformation, senior management felt the time was right to hire an individual who can drive greater visibility into two of the company’s important areas–ethics and compliance.
My role has two primary functions. First, I am the operational head of the Corporate Compliance unit with three direct reports and a team of eight.
The Corporate Compliance unit has responsibility for assessing compliance risk and monitoring the implementation of compliance functions across the company.
It also is accountable for those compliance activities that are enterprise-wide in nature, such as privacy, anti-money laundering and record keeping.
In addition, I have four indirect reports who manage the business area compliance functions. These include Insurance & Services Compliance, Investments Compliance, Securities Compliance, and International.
CUJ: Can you speak to the corporate ethics component, and the issues involved there?
Koslow: There is an extremely strong ethical culture at CUNA Mutual, fully supported and led by Jeff Post and his senior leaders.
CUNA Mutual understands the essential role that being an ethical leader in the financial services industry plays for credit unions and their members. We are very proud of our ethical culture, and we continually look for ways to enhance this culture and use it to help our customers create a distinct marketplace advantage.
We will explore opportunities to increase our internal and external communication around ethics, so our brand, and that of our customers, remains a hallmark of the industry.
CUJ: What is the Compliance Leadership Council, who are the members, and what are the key concerns there?
Koslow: We are very excited about the creation of the Compliance Leadership Council, which will kick off this spring. Essentially, this group will help ensure full alignment between the objectives and activities of the Compliance and Ethics Organization and the strategic objectives of the company.
The council will consist of senior level leaders from across the business units at CUNA Mutual.
CUJ: What will you bring from your previous position that will be of benefit at CUNA Mutual?
Koslow: Having spent the past eight years as a director at PricewaterhouseCoopers and five years prior to that as an attorney with MetLife, I’ve been privileged to have worked with some of the best financial services companies in the country.
I understand what is involved in leading a good compliance organization as it grows into a great compliance organization.
CUNA Mutual is transforming itself into an even greater company, and there is a clear mandate and expectation that the Compliance and Ethics Organization will continue to evolve as well.
CUJ: What in the near and long term has CUNA Mutual charged you with accomplishing?
Koslow: We have some very clear near-and long-term objectives. This year, our focus is on making sure individuals inside the Compliance and Ethics Organization are fully connected with each other and with our internal customers.
Our theme for the year is, “One Vision/One Voice,” and we are dedicated to ensuring the entire compliance organization works together.
I have instituted a Compliance Leadership Team, which meets every other week and is comprised of the leaders from each of the various compliance functional areas.
In addition, we recently held an Enterprise Compliance Summit on Feb. 20, during which we brought together the more than 60 compliance professionals from around the company for a full day of continuing education and awareness.
Looking to the future, we expect to implement a more formal risk assessment methodology and enhance our oversight and monitoring controls across the company.
