The Australian Financial Security Authority (AFSA) held its flagship summit this month, with NICC Chief Commissioner Philip Crawford invited to attend as a keynote speaker.
The theme was 'Building collective stewardship across the credit ecosystem' and attendees ranged from AFSA staff to representatives from the Australian Transaction and Reports Analysis Centre, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority, the Australian Tax Office and the Attorney General's Office.
Mr Crawford spoke about fostering compliance cultures through leadership that adjusts the balance between commercial enterprise and social licence.
He said companies should view compliance as an investment in long-term sustainability, not a regulatory burden.
“We covered some critical topics during the summit, not least the growing realisation from regulators that culture is a vital piece of the puzzle and that it starts at the top," Mr Crawford said.
"Compliance cultures are characterised by greater levels of transparency and accountability and cultural change hinges on leadership.
"Culture is one of the biggest factors that determines whether compliance processes are robust and individual actors in a company will do the right thing when no one is looking.
"Without a strong cultural compliance foundation, businesses will not succeed - compliance cultures are crucial to sustainability."
Mr Crawford also touched on the need to modernise legislation to keep up with evolving industries, as has happened over the past few years, across Australia, via broad legislative reform of casino regulation.
"In NSW we identified cultural, governance and risk issues that were deeply embedded in business practices and had gone unchecked by regulators for many years."
"Significant reform was possible because the inquiries created a window for change; casinos had lost their social licences and community expectations around gambling harm were changing.
"But companies should not need to hit rock bottom to realise the importance of taking cultural reform seriously. Regulators must be on the lookout for cultural red flags that drive unethical behaviour so they can initiate remedial change."
"The AFSA Summit was an important forum to communicate these messages and to engage with our fellow financial regulators. I was honoured to participate with the other expert speakers and panellists."