Compliance Examination

To enforce the rules of an industry, there have to be examinations or inspections to ensure that the rules of that industry are being adhered to by all. Duh.

In the Wall Street-y finance world, the big kahuna of compliance exams is the Series 7...available here on Shmoop for a small fee. And now, the new-and-improved (Jenny Craigified) SIE exam.

A compliance examination is the annual bushwacking delivered by compliance officers to the hierarchy of offices from Federal offices down to your local offices. The examinations are periodic, usually annual.

However if problems are noted, the examinations become more often, quarterly or monthly, until the problem or problems are solved. Some examinations or inspections are required to be surprise visits (10%), but most are scheduled in advance. In most cases, if you fail the first time, you are allowed to try, try again. As long as you can turn your head and cough.

The intent of the examination is to determine whether or not the rules, policies, and procedures are being adhered to, and ultimately that the federal regulations are implemented and followed. Every office being inspected is to function as though every day was going to be an inspection day.

"...The price of liberty is not so much eternal vigilance as eternal dirt.” George Orwell