In something of an understatement, Geoff Creighton describes the jump from his longtime corporate-law practice to being head of legal and compliance at Winnipeg-based IGM Financial Inc. as a “baptism by fire.” The year was 2008, and the global financial crisis was about to erupt.
Although that autumn was enormously turbulent for everyone in the financial services industry, Creighton says the timing of his career switch gave him something he might not have had otherwise- a new perspective on the industry. Indeed, his insights from that period have continued to inform his tenure at IGM, he says, where he is senior vice president, general counsel and secretary and a member of the group’s small executive management teams.
What it boils down to, Creighton says, is a permanent change in the business climate that must be faced. “You have regulators who’ve been emboldened,” he says, “[driven by] a public that is demanding action.”
Creighton now oversees all legal, compliance and corporate secretarial functions at Mackenzie Financial Corp., Winnipeg-based Investors Group Inc. and Mississauga, Ont.-based Investment Planning Counsel from his spacious office in Mackenzie’s downtown Toronto headquarters. Last September, he also became the chairman of the Canadian Corporate Counsel Association, an increasingly influential group of lawyers who are employees of the companies they advise rather than being members of independent law firms.
More and more often, in-house counsel are playing key roles in steering financial services companies through a business climate that continues to experience significant change – in domestic and global regulation, heightened public scrutiny and, of course, competitive pressures.
For financial services firms, these new realities mean change on many fronts. Creighton notes that at IGM, for instance, the pace and volume of new tasks related to the regulatory climate increased sharply following the 2008 crisis and, since then, “has not abated a bit.” Steering those tasks is the company’s regulatory initiatives committee, which meets monthly.
It’s critical, Creighton says, that financial services firms such as those in the IGM group make sure that they don’t miss new twists and turns in the evolving global debate about their industry. It is now common, for instance, for a wide array of think-tanks and advocacy groups, such as the C.D. Howe Institute, to recommend significant changes in the regulation of financial services. Says Creighton: “The upshot of 2008 is that investors are much more attentive to things they let go and didn’t pay attention to in the past.”
Industry input
Although that’s all to the good, Creighton says, the financial services industry needs to make sure that its voice also is heard. The new investor advisory panel established by the Ontario Securities Commission, for instance, includes no industry representatives, he notes. While Creighton emphasizes that the panel’s members are all highly qualified, he says, the lack of an industry voice is a concern.
Being heard can have direct results. The new anti-spam regulations put out by the federal government are a case in point. After the Investment Funds Institute of Canada pointed out that much legitimate business communication could be caught by rules aimed at bad actors pumping out millions of spam emails, Ottawa agreed to make some changes in the new regime.
Sometimes, the gap that must be bridged is closer to home – the cultural divide that can exist between a firm’s compliance department and the business side. “A large part of our task is to persuade the business side that we are all part of the same group and we really do want them to succeed. They are the heart of the business. But, at the same time, they have to realize that an element of them succeeding is that they don’t do things in a manner that is going to get them into trouble and potentially shut down their entire franchise if they are sanctioned or disciplined.”
What work’s best, says Creighton, is a balanced message along the lines of: “We share your concern that the overlay of compliance be as light and unobtrusive to your business as is entirely possible. But it’s not something we can escape.”
Take social media. While a major departure from the past, it should be treated like any other communication tool, new or old, Creighton says – essentially, all communications from a financial services firm need to meet all regulatory requirements.
“It may be tougher to do that [with social media] because you have to do it in real time and you have to deal with the perception that electronic communications are less formal,” he says. On the other hand, he also acknowledges that social media is a powerful new tool. “On the product and marketing side, it is viewed as a huge opportunity for contact.”
Acting as a bridge between the worlds of law and business is a role Creighton also takes on outside IGM. He has participated in professional submissions to regulators on such issues as implementation of the Dodd-Frank legislation in the U.S. Creighton also is on the public policy committee of the Canadian Coalition for Good Governance.
Creighton’s leadership role at the CCCA is part of that commitment: sharing information among in- house counsel who work for different companies can provide valuable support for all, he notes, in a position that can sometimes feel lonely. “Your first response is to see how we can get to the intended result that we are trying to achieve, in a way that’s compliant,” Creighton says. “But at the end of the day, you are counsel and your role is to give courageous counsel.”
The same goes for others in compliance-related jobs, he says, who may be part of other professional associations: “There’s a lot of benefit to the cross-pollination [at association meetings].”
In his off hours, Creighton likes to keep up the intensity. He is an avid speed walker. He and his lawyer wife, Marie Oswald, regularly participate in long-distance competitions in Canada and abroad. The couple have three adult children, one of whom also is a lawyer. Another is in the fashion industry, while the third is studying commerce. IE
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