By Adam Turteltaub

These days compliance typically stands alone and reports directly to the board.  But that’s not true for every organization.

At Freddie Mac, compliance is a part of Enterprise Risk Management (ERM), albeit with a reporting line to the audit committee of the board.

To get a better sense of how this relationship with risk works I spoke with Michael Levin, the Senior Director of Compliance there.  He explained that, like so many other large financial institutions, Freddie Mac operates with a three-lines-of-defense system.  Since both compliance and ERM served on the second line of defense, the company decided to combine the two under one executive leader.

For Michael, there have been significant benefits to this relationship.  It has helped the compliance team to better understand risk, build bridges to the business unit, gain greater exposure to the board and become a part of business decisions much earlier.

At the same time, there have been challenges, including helping the ERM team better understand the challenges of managing culture.

Listen in to better understand the benefits and risks and being a part of risk management.