MyComplianceOffice Blog

Tracking employee compliance credentials including licensing, registrations and continuing education is a complex endeavor. 

Using spreadsheets to track compliance with employee qualification and certification requirements sounds like a cost-effective and simple way to keep track. But when you factor in all of the potential licenses, registrations and continuing education updates that are potentially applicable to employees of a financial services firm and all of the moving parts that go along with them, it’s a daunting task with much room for error.

It's been almost one year the Consumer Duty came into force, setting higher and clearer standards for consumer protection across the financial services industry. 31 July 2024 will be a milestone date, marking not just the anniversary of the Duty but also implementation for closed products and the first Board Report due date.

The Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) institutes uniform regulations for crypto-assets across the EU that are not currently regulated by existing financial services legislation.  The Application of Rules for asset-referenced and e-money tokens took effect on 30 June 2024. The countdown is on for the Application of Rules for the remaining asset classes in December 2024.

Failing to adequately manage Material Non-Public Information (MNPI) remains a high-risk area for compliance, as evidenced by recent actions in the United States, the United Kingdom and across the globe for issues including insufficient insider trading compliance policies, market abuse and failure to effectively manage insider information.

Financial services firms are among the most heavily regulated organizations worldwide. From the FCA to the SEC to ESMA to MAS and beyond, financial services firms are subject to a web of compliance requirements and obligations. It’s not enough to simply be compliant with these requirements—each firm has to be able to prove it.

That’s where compliance certifications and attestations come into play.