At yesterday's Round Table 'Compliance Officer - Roles and Duties' organized by ICCrA Institute for Compliance, Criminal Compliance and Anti-Money Laundering and Lider, business weekly, Marija Hrebac, Executive Director at the Deposit Insurance and Bank Resolution Agency, gave a lecture from her own experience the role and duty of compliance officer.

As a young market, companies in Croatia are just adapting and the real role of compliance will eventually emerge and take on a real position in Croatian companies.

- Compliance is an evolutionary and developmentally imposed role or function within a company that must be had if the company wants to operate in the long run - said Hrebac.

She pointed out that two important events have recently taken place that show that we have made a major step forward as a state:

- The government has made a proposal to introduce compliance into state-owned companies, and another important event is that HANFA and the stock market have adopted a corporate governance code. This is important because it builds on our theme of compliance. They realized the need to rise to a higher level prescribing obligations to everyone, to make them think about their businesses, but also to think about the market in which they operate. Compliance is the link between the business and the business market - added Hrebac.

Then she referred to the actual duties of compliance officer and his position within the company and the skills she or he must possess.

- Compliance officer must ensure that the company operates ethically and in accordance with the legal requirements of the market in which they operate. In addition, CO is responsible for establishing the standard and implementation itself, and as far as its position is concerned, CO is a management function.

Regarding skills, Hrebac said that CO must have analytical, communication and organizational skills, but that the profession itself is not so important, because CO can also be an economist, lawyer, pharmacist.

- There are no rules; it is up to each company to evaluate which person is capable of being a compliance officer.