I believe this is quite common. Many of us wear that Internal Audit/Compliance Officer hat. I do. I guess I am wondering why are some questioning your independence between the two? Especially if you do not have any operational responsibilities? Speaking purely from my own experience, in community banks where resources are limited I think a bank would be hard pressed to keep the auditor/compliance person to even those sole responsibilities. If you read these posts you see that not only do we do these, but we assist in CRA, BSA, Online banking, new product development, etc.. it simply cannot be helped and I would think that it might be unfortunate that if you have a sharp individual that you wouldnt utilize that individual elsewhere, barring circumstances where there could be a conflict of interest (i.e. writing policies...and how many auditors/compliance people do we have that will admit that even they have written a policy or two?
) Anyway, don't feel alone. These threads are a great place to come to find out truly that others walk in our shoes every day. Good luck.