MyComplianceOffice Blog

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) enforcement for failure to maintain and preserve adequate records of electronic communications and for failure to adequately supervise the use of off-channel communications is at the top of compliance professionals' minds right now. The size and scope of the firms involved and the staggering $2.5 billion plus in penalties assessed have made the actions a hot topic in the news and across the financial services industry. 

Once upon a time, there was a company that was looking to purchase compliance software. The software and manual processes that the firm was using to manage compliance just weren’t keeping up with the firm’s growth and it was time to move on.

But like Goldilocks in the classic tale of the Three Bears, they found that not all compliance software was just right.

The 2024 Surveillance Benchmarking Survey & Report from 1LoD, co-sponsored by MCO, contains insights from thousands of conversations with surveillance leaders across the financial services industry. 

As the report points out, compliance surveillance is a never-ending story. Surveillance for market abuse and employee misconduct will never be done. It’s an iterative and ongoing process. 

Managing a financial trading control room involves balancing a wide variety of tasks. To comply with stringent rules and regulations, all deals must be carefully reviewed, the flow of information strictly managed, and an overarching focus on preventing conflicts of interest must be a constant. Without effective processes, a single deal can move slowly through the pipeline—and those delays aren’t beneficial for the firm’s bottom line. 

The 2024 U.S. Presidential election is grabbing the headlines right now. However, 469 other federal elections, 13 gubernatorial elections, and countless contests at the state and local levels will be decided in November. With so many candidates and campaigns, the risk of pay-to-play and political donation rule violations, even unintentional ones, is high.