A compliance officer’s job is to oversee the compliance function and “manage” compliance, not “do” compliance. For example, when a customer opens a new account, the compliance officer is not the one that discusses the available options, provides necessary disclosures, or explains other account-related information. But the compliance officer needs to ensure those “doers” that are responsible for these tasks have the knowledge to carry out their duties and if/when mistakes are made (and mistakes will be made), that there is a process in place to train these team members and help ensure they do it right next time. Completely eliminating errors, while an admirable goal, just isn’t very realistic and the focus should be on mitigating errors.
David explains more in the video.