• Compliance procedures and manuals
• Compliance audit and review
• Compliance outsourcing
• Compliance projects and advice

Compliance Procedures and Manuals

It is important that appropriate compliance procedures are established and maintained at all times.

Our compliance induction service assists clients in implementing these procedures and ensuring that we familiarise their staff with them in a timely and efficient manner. We also maintain frequent contact with clients to ensure that their procedures are up-to-date and in line with the current rules.

We have extensive experience of writing procedures and manuals, each of them specific to clients' individual circumstances. We also provide the service of updating existing manuals to bring them into line with clients' changing businesses or to comply with new rules, as and when these are introduced by the regulator.

Compliance Audit and Review

Our compliance monitoring, audit and review service can be split into five categories:

• A full compliance review, often called a "health check", to confirm adherence to the relevant requirements, guidance and associated legislation. We aim to obtain evidence to show that systems and controls are working satisfactorily. Where there are weaknesses, we offer advice and recommendations which are both in line with current guidance and cost-effective to our client. We can carry out these reviews on a one-off basis or as part of a regular review programme.
• A post-authorisation review to reassure firms that their newly authorised business is on the right track for a successful relationship with both the regulator and their clients.
• A post-inspection visit to assist with the implementation of any required changes or recommendations made by the FSA or SEC.
• An annual regulatory risk review identifying and assessing operational and regulatory risks to ensure that firms have considered all recognised risks as part of their systems, control and oversight requirements.
• An initial or ongoing Internal Capital Adequacy Assessment Process (ICAAP) Assessment. The ICAAP is completed so that firms have arrangements in place to ensure they have sufficient financial resources to enable them to meet their obligations as they fall due and would build on, or be part of, the risk review process referred to above. The ICAAP requirement was implemented by FSA as of 1st January 2008.

Compliance Outsourcing

Some firms, while understanding the importance of compliance within their organisations, do not have the necessary expertise or time to devote to this and therefore, wish to outsource specific compliance tasks. We provide this service for clients, both in start-up situations and for more mature companies.

Our consultants would ensure that:

• Procedures are established
• Monitoring is undertaken on a timely basis
• Any issues are reported to senior members of staff and dealt with
• The compliance manual and procedures are kept up-to-date
• All compliance implications of future business development are addressed

Additional Information

To view more information on our Compliance Outsourcing services in PDF format, please click here.

Compliance Projects and Advice

We also assist clients with ad hoc projects.

These often focus on the compliance implications of business and product changes and whether their current permissions, registrations and procedures remain adequate.

These projects include:

• Conducting compliance due diligence in connection with the acquisition of a regulated company
• Acting as technical interviewer when a customer is recruiting new compliance personnel
• Providing litigation support in the event of an allegation of illegal or unethical actions by a company or a member of its staff

We are always available to all our clients for advice on any regulatory matter that affects them. We adopt an ethical approach to our business and wherever possible are environmentally aware.

We make it our business to ensure the services we offer are clear and comprehensible. Here are some brief descriptions of terms we use in this section.

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