In the Spring of 1995, Lori Richards and John Walsh moved into an empty floor at SEC headquarters and began building a new Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE). During the next 14 years, supervised by five SEC chairs and fifteen commissioners each with different perspectives and agendas, OCIE dealt with sweeping changes in financial markets and a host of regulatory challenges ranging from analyst conflicts of interest to Y2K compliance.
In creating OCIE, the SEC acknowledged the interconnectedness of the industry, reaching beyond divisional barriers to better see differences and similarities in the rules and regulations for all types of registrants. During the next 14 years OCIE drove uniformity and consistency as it deployed old tools and developed new innovations. Throughout the period OCIE made the industry aware of emerging issues, heightened the visibility of the exam function, promoted regulatory conformity, and fostered the rise of a new professional, the Chief Compliance Officer.