COVID-19 and Working Remotely: Reminding Staff of Their Compliance Obligations

As firms navigate the impact of the COVID-19 crisis and government “stay at home” orders, Compliance Officers, forever mindful of regulatory and legal obligations, are faced with new challenges posed by remote and distributed workforces. A key part of addressing this challenge is staying accessible and visible though strong and consistent messaging to staff.

To help mitigate the risk of ‘compliance distancing’, it's key that Compliance Officers make staff aware of their role in protecting the business. Empowering employees with knowledge of their regulatory requirements will ultimately strengthen the ability to adhere to core business disciplines as remote working becomes the new norm. This will help bolster the Firm’s safeguards relating to investor protection, market conduct and in meeting its legal and regulatory obligations.

Ideally, the communication should come from a senior manager of the Firm, to help demonstrate compliance-driven culture with an appropriate setting of the “tone from the top”.

To help make this easy, we have drafted a pro forma message, replete with key issues and topics for European compliance officers to download and use as part of a communication to all within the firm.

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How we help

ACA provides a range of solutions designed to help financial services firms achieve operational resilience, meet regulatory obligations, adhere to industry best practices, and increase efficiencies. From outsourced managed services to regulatory technology, to cybersecurity and technology risk management and online training for employees, we can help your firm reduce the burden of day-to-day compliance management. To learn more about how we can assist your firm, please reach out to your ACA consultant or contact us here.

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Additional Resources

• Compliance Officer’s Plan for Recovery in the Next Phase of Covid-19 checklist useful, outlining key compliance and risk considerations to keep in mind as we enter the next phase of the pandemic.
• European Compliance Officer's Checklist for 2020