Compliance Program Development and Enhancement

Navigate the changing risk and compliance landscape

As new rules and regulations are adopted and the regulatory landscape evolves your compliance programme must keep pace or risk leaving your firm exposed.

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Our solutions

In additional to ongoing compliance manual maintenance support, our ACA compliance cycle management team can assist you with a range of topical compliance challenges, including:

AIFMD Consulting & Support

Drafting of your documentation, policies, procedures and controls for AIFMD impacted EEA-based investment managers of alternative investment funds, and also non-EEA advisers who wish to market such funds into the EEA.

Stay on top of financial crimes-related threats and regulatory concerns with AML consulting support. We can support with independent testing and risk management, as well as, development of AML, KYC/CDD, FCPA and anti-bribery, and cybersecurity policies and procedures.

Updating of policies, procedures and compliance manuals for firms with a UK-based presence, reflecting new rules and regulations following the exit of the UK from the European Union.

Policy and procedure development and program management including carbon footprinting, climate risk scenario analysis, net-zero management, DEI baselining and training, portfolio performance assessment, reporting (UN PRI, TCFD, SFDR), and marketing and disclosures reviews.

FCA Marketing Abuse Regulation (MAR) Solutions

Focused and cost-effective assessment of your firm’s policies, procedures, monitoring program, surveillance techniques, and controls environment. Our ACA compliance cycle management services can also provide a deep-dive review, benchmarking, and testing of your firm’s market abuse arrangements.

LIBOR

Assistance in devising your LIBOR transition plans, assessing and reviewing your firm’s reliance and usage of LIBOR, or performing a gap analysis review of your transition work to date.

Our investment company team will help you to navigate the SEC’s liquidity risk management program rule through educational resources and alerts, benchmarking insight, help with program management and development of policies and procedures, annual assessments.

MiFID II Consulting & Support

Our post-implementation review is designed to review, test and benchmark your MiFID II program to identify gaps and reduce your regulatory risk for compliance enhancement.

Our prudential team are on-hand to help provide regulatory oversight of your firm’s capital monitoring and forecasting, and regulatory reporting processes. This includes support with the upcoming Investment Firms Prudential Regime (IFPR).

Regulation Best Interest (Reg BI) and Form CRS

Our ACA compliance cycle management experts can help broker-dealers understand the compliance and operational issues presented by Reg BI as they relate to their retail business. Our consultants can assist in designing customized procedures that will detail the steps needed to address Reg BI’s requirements as they relate to your firm.

SM&CR Compliance Solutions

Post-implementation reviews of your documentation, framework and internal process, gap analysis, as well as senior manager and conduct rule training for compliance enhancement.

Policy and procedure development and thematic project support to help make sure your trade and transaction reporting is in line with MiFID/MIFIR and EMIR regulatory requirements.

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Latest insights

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The FCA Business Plan 2019/20 and the Future of Financial Regulation in the UK

On 17 April, the FCA published its Business Plan for 2019/2020, setting out its key priorities and specific activities for the coming year. Read on for a summary of the areas of priority we believe will be of interest to firms in the wholesale arena, and a dissection of Mr Bailey’s vision.

Compliance Alert
  • Compliance
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Summary of FINRA Regulatory Actions 2018

The total dollar amount of fines in 2018 that the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s (“FINRA”) Enforcement Division ordered against its member firms increased slightly to $74 million from $68 million in 2017. While the total dollar amount increased nearly nine percent, the total number of fines decreased to 209 in 2018, compared to 318 in 2017. Both the number and dollar amount of fines assessed by FINRA have fallen significantly since 2014, as the charts below show. In 2014, FINRA fined broker-dealers a record amount of nearly $129 million dollars, roughly 10 percent greater than the total dollar amount assessed in 2017 and 2018 combined.

Compliance Alert
  • Compliance
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Regulatory Changes with Compliance Implications for Exchange-Traded Funds

Several new regulatory requirements and developments should be evaluated by certain ETF sponsors and advisers regarding changes to the stock-exchange listing standards and Regulation M. This article summarizes these developments and their potential compliance program implications.

Compliance Alert
  • Compliance
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Transaction reporting: The beginning of the end or the end of the beginning?

Numerous firms who have undertaken complex, expensive and burdensome projects to build their reporting frameworks have mistaken the light at the end of the implementation tunnel as the end of the MiFID II challenge. Some firms are looking the wrong way down the tunnel, and others might well be watching the FCA enforcement train leaving the station.

Compliance Alert
  • Compliance
  • Trade & Transaction
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SEC Warns of Data Privacy Compliance Issues

On April 16, the SEC's OCIE issued a risk alert detailing compliance issues from recent examinations of investment advisers and broker-dealers pertaining to privacy regulations.

Compliance Alert
  • Compliance
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What Boards Need to Know About the SEC’s New Cybersecurity Request List

Cybersecurity oversight continues to challenge boards and now the SEC has updated their request list for cyber exams. This updated list combined with previously articulated SEC expectations, provides some directional help for boards as they navigate cybersecurity issues. In this blog, ACA's Jim Pappas shares what boards need to know.

Article
  • Compliance

News

ACA Group Acquires Financial Compliance Firm, FINOP Consulting

Acquisition strengthens ACA’s outsourced financial operations offering for broker-dealers.

ACA Group Recognized on ESGFinTech100 Among Top Industry Innovators

We are thrilled to announce that ACA Group has earned a spot on the prestigious 2024 ESGFinTech100 list, joining the ranks of the world's most innovative ESG technology providers.

Financial Services Firms Lag in AI Governance and Compliance Readiness, Survey Reveals

The 2024 AI Benchmarking Survey by ACA Aponix and NSCP reveals that, despite enthusiasm for AI, financial firms lack formal AI governance frameworks, testing protocols, and third-party oversight.

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