MyComplianceOffice Blog

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.

If you work in the financial services industry, you know how important it is to have clear, consistent, and compliant policies and procedures. Policies and procedures enable firms to align operations with strategic objectives, meet regulatory requirements, and foster a culture of accountability and transparency.

But managing policies and procedures is often easier said than done. It can be a complex and challenging endeavor to create, update, communicate, and enforce policies and procedures across the firm—and to ensure policy stays up to date in times of flux and uncertainty.

The 2024 FINRA Annual Regulatory Oversight Report provides firms with insight into findings from FINRA’s regulatory operations programs including Member Supervision, Market Regulation and Enforcement. Addressing a broad range of topics spanning conflicts of interest, disclosures, communication practices and crypto asset compliance, the report contains information that firms can use to strengthen their compliance programs in 2024 and beyond.

2023 was another active year for U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) enforcement, encompassing a wide range of violations against individuals and firms of all sizes.  

Understanding 2023 enforcement actions along with the agency’s 2024 enforcement priorities will help firms better assess and anticipate regulatory expectations—and set the stage for better compliance. 

Employees at all levels of the organization make decisions that impact compliance every single day. To ensure that those decisions are wise ones, employees need to understand where they fit into the organization. If there's not a shared understanding of roles and responsibilities supported by controls and accountability there's a risk of chaotic compliance—and a chaotic culture across the firm.