Organizations Support the Intent of the Conflict Minerals Rule, Despite Effort Required to Comply, According to a Recent Thrive on Risk and ComplianceOnline Survey

PALO ALTO, Calif., Sept. 27, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- In light of the approaching May 2014 conflict minerals reporting deadline, Thrive on Risk and ComplianceOnline conducted a survey of over 300 respondents from 10 industry sectors to understand their level of awareness of the conflict minerals rule, their approaches to ensure compliance, and their perspectives on how the ruling will impact the situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and adjoining countries.

In the resulting Thrive on Risk and ComplianceOnline survey report, titled Are Organizations Ready for the Conflict Minerals Reporting Deadline¹, 83% of respondents indicated that significant time and effort will be required to comply with the conflict minerals ruling. This finding echoes industry predictions around the cost of conflict minerals compliance for organizations, which is estimated at billions of dollars. Much of the cost, time, and effort will revolve around conducting a Reasonable Country of Origin Inquiry (RCOI), and mapping an organization's product and supply chains all the way through to the smelters.

In spite of the effort required for compliance, 62% of respondents believe that the conflict minerals ruling is a step in the right direction, with the potential to reduce armed violence in the DRC. To that end, the European Union and Canada are also evaluating the possibility of drafting and enacting similar regulations around the use of conflict minerals.

When it comes to the current state of compliance with the rule, the survey found that the majority of respondents are still in the early stages of either initiating their supplier surveys, or planning their conflict minerals program. Yet most indicated that they are confident that their organizations will meet the May 2014 reporting deadline. As they work towards this deadline, many are in the process of deploying, or are planning to deploy either a manual or automated conflict minerals management solution. However, the majority of respondents indicated that they believe an extensible platform-based solution is ideal for their organization when it comes to sustainable, long-term conflict minerals compliance.

"We are excited to announce the findings of the conflict minerals survey," said Keri Dawson, Vice President Industry Solutions and Advisory Services at MetricStream. She continued, "Section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Act is expected to affect thousands of SEC-listed companies, as well as suppliers and private organizations around the world. Compliance is not going to be easy, but many organizations both recognize and support the intent behind the rule. Various industry associations are also getting on board by providing recommendations that can help organizations achieve cost-effective and sustainable compliance. We believe that this rule and the associated compliance efforts undertaken by organizations will help to minimize conflict minerals related armed violence in the affected countries."

¹Are Organizations Ready for the Conflict Minerals Reporting Deadline is an analysis of a survey conducted from June-July 2013 by Thrive on Risk and ComplianceOnline, and sponsored by MetricStream. Please click here to download the report.

About Thrive on Risk

Thrive on Risk is a members-only think tank that equips and empowers individuals to become catalysts for change by leading major GRC-related transformations within their organizations and industries. Thrive on Risk leverages the experience and expertise of its member-base to produce cutting edge research, thought leadership content, and video conversations with CEOs, board members, risk executives, analysts, entrepreneurs, and more.  
www.thriveonrisk.com

About ComplianceOnline

ComplianceOnline is a leading provider of regulatory compliance trainings, delivered through webinars and in-person seminars. In the last 7 years, ComplianceOnline has nurtured the largest community of GRC experts and consultants and, through them, successfully trained over 35,000 professionals from 9,000 companies to comply with the requirements of regulatory agencies. For more information, please visit www.complianceonline.com.

About MetricStream

MetricStream is a market leader in enterprise-wide Governance, Risk, Compliance (GRC) and Quality Management Solutions for global corporations. MetricStream solutions are used by leading corporations such as UBS, Barclaycard US, P&G, Constellation Energy, Pfizer, Philips, United Technologies Corporation, SanDisk, Cummins, and Autogrill in diverse industries such as Financial Services, Healthcare, Life Sciences, Energy and Utilities, Food, Retail, CPG, Government, Hi-tech and Manufacturing to manage their risk management programs, quality processes, regulatory and industry-mandated compliance and corporate governance initiatives, as well as several million compliance professionals worldwide via the www.ComplianceOnline.com portal. MetricStream is headquartered in Palo Alto, California and can be reached at www.metricstream.com.

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