2025 marks the 10th anniversary of Armstrong Wolfe’s CCO Community,

Celebrating a decade of the industry’s commitment to addressing the persistent challenge of misconduct by a few, which continues to impact the sector’s reputation and result in regulatory fines amounting to billions of dollars.

The journey began in April 2015, when Deutsche Bank hosted the inaugural Chief Control Officer Dinners in London and New York, with 20 banks in attendance. At that time, the attendees were not yet Control Officers but COOs exploring the concept of the 1st Line Control Officer; a concept outlined in a seminal paper by Armstrong Wolfe’s CEO, Maurice Evlyn-Bufton: Defining the Indefinable: The Evolution of the Front Office Control Officer.

Ten years and over 150 roundtables later, hosted by iCOOC members across six major financial centres, the community has become the foremost platform for dialogue and analysis on the challenges confronting the accountable executives of the 1st Line of Defence.

The CCO Community fosters a culture of openness and confidence, encouraging debate that spans the esoteric to the granular. No topic is too small or too detailed, and every status quo is open to challenge.

The Q1 2023 publication, Establishing Priorities and Taskings for the 1st Line of Defence, was widely praised by members and regulators alike. In Q4 2024, the industry paper Challenging the Status Quo of Risk and Governance Between the First and Second Line; developed with input from 50 first- and second-line executives;  revealed surprising consensus and will be further explored throughout 2025.