Regulatory Compliance and Obligations Registers

An obligations register is a central repository that contains details of the legal and regulatory obligations that apply to an organisation, and the person or persons primarily responsible for ensuring compliance.

In a highly complex regulatory environment, it is vitally important to understand and keep up to date on relevant laws and regulations and to have confidence that the business is geared up to comply and fulfil obligations when required. 

We have found obligations registers to be an essential tool for this purpose, including ensuring that responsibilities and controls are clearly recorded for effective risk management. 

Registers can be developed for specific aspects of an organisation’s operations or more holistically. Details can include: 

• a summary of the business’s legal and regulatory obligations; 

• relevant cross-referencing to legislative, regulatory and other provisions; 

• the frequency of the obligations; 

• the obligation owner(s) within the organisation and other interested parties; 

• internal policies and procedures; 

• reporting requirements, including to management and other key stakeholders; 

• penalties for non-compliance; 

• relevant risk ratings (as applicable); and 

• compliance status. 

An obligations register allows you to have confidence that suitable policies and procedures are in place and that the risk of non-compliance and regulatory enforcement action is reduced.