Discuss the kinds of controls MetLife could have imposed in 1990 that would have make compliance actual and not token.

A token effort at compliance to a regulatory complaint or charge tends to have two consequences, neither good in the long run for the company involved:
1. Tokenism gives a clear message to the organization: “Despite what outsiders say, this is acceptable conduct in this firm.” Thus is set the climate for less-than- desirable practices.
2. Vulnerability to harsher measures in the future. With the malpractice continuing, regulators, convinced that the company is stalling and refusing to cooperate, will eventually take more drastic action. Penalties will move beyond warnings to become punitive.
Actually, the firm may not have intended to stall, but that is the impression conveyed. If the cause of the seemingly token effort is really faulty controls, one wonders how many other aspects of the operation are also ineptly controlled so that company policies are ignored.