Glossary term
Regulatory Obligations Register
Subject: Compliance and Regulation, Compliance Programme and Function
Also known as: Compliance Obligations Register, Regulatory Inventory
A regulatory obligations register is a central list of the legal and regulatory requirements that apply to an organisation, each linked to the policy, control and named owner responsible for meeting it.
Explanation
Rules arrive in statutes, regulator circulars, licence conditions and codes. A register pulls them into one structured record. Each line normally holds the source, a plain statement of what must be done, the business area affected, the owner, the controls that meet it and the date of the last review. Compliance teams build it by reading the rulebook and breaking it into individual duties, then keep it current as rules change. It becomes the base for compliance risk assessments, monitoring plans and testing, because it shows what should be tested and who answers for it. Gaps show up quickly: an obligation with no owner or no control is a visible weakness. Auditors and supervisors often ask for it early, because it shows whether the firm knows what applies to it before any testing starts.
Example
A pharmaceutical manufacturer operates in six countries. Its compliance team lists 420 obligations covering manufacturing practice, labelling, safety reporting and data privacy. Each is tagged to a site, an owner and a control. When one country changes its serialisation rule, the team filters the register, finds the three affected owners and sets a deadline for each, so the change reaches the shop floor instead of staying in a legal memo.
Not to be confused with
- Risk register
- A risk register lists risks and their ratings. An obligations register lists duties imposed by law and rules, whatever their risk rating.