MyComplianceOffice Blog

Compared with other industries, the financial services industry inherently has an elevated risk of conflicts of interest. In particular, connected persons and close personal relationships can influence decisions that result in significant business and financial impact. After all, we’re all human and sometimes act based on emotion. Unfortunately, those human, emotional connections can sometimes lead to severe conflicts.

Failure to disclose connected persons and personal relationships as required by firm policies and jurisdictional regulations can lead to significant consequences for both an individual and their firm. Recent events saw two high-profile media executives resign from their jobs because they failed to disclose their relationship under the organization’s disclosure policies, not because of the nature of the relationship itself.