This episode of Compliance Clarified explores the obligations of U.S. investment advisers under a new regulation that gives giving them more opportunities to advertise. The marketing rule adopted by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission took full effect in November. It is designed to let advisers use many methods long practiced in other industries, including testimonials, endorsements, performance reporting and third-party ratings. It also establishes new compliance obligations, and the SE...
Dec 22, 2022•23 min
The first significant post-Brexit changes to UK financial services regulation were announced on December 9 by Jeremy Hunt, Chancellor of the Exchequer. The so-called 'Edinburgh Reforms' represent an attempt to honour government election manifesto promises and include possible changes to the Senior Mangers Regime, short selling, Solvency II and research rules under MiFID 2, among others. In this episode of Compliance Clarified, Lindsey Rogerson and Rachel Wolcott, senior editors in London, join A...
Dec 16, 2022•30 min
This episode of Compliance Clarified considers the regulatory future of digital assets following the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX. The failure has turned as many as 1 million customers from account holders into bankruptcy creditors, and cost its backers hundreds of millions of dollars. Regulators around the world are investigating what FTX’s new CEO called a “complete failure of corporate control.” Policy makers are calling with increasing urgency for new rules, but others say there i...
Dec 08, 2022•44 min
The EU Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) aims to ensure that all participants in the financial system have the necessary safeguards in place to mitigate cyber-attacks and other risks. The legislation will require firms to ensure that they can withstand all types of ICT-related disruptions and threats. It complements existing laws such as the Network and Information Security Directive (NISD) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). In this episode, Alexander Robson, managing edi...
Dec 01, 2022•15 min
Australian gambling giant Star Entertainment Group was last month fined A$100 million for failing to stop money laundering at its Sydney casino. The group's licence to operate the casino has also been suspended. Casino operators in Australia have been under great pressure to reform their gambling operations following reports of widespread criminal activity. The record penalties were announced in response to a damning inquiry in New South Wales (NSW) earlier this year. The Star is not alone. Ther...
Nov 24, 2022•15 min
This episode examines two consultations published by securities regulators at the COP27 climate conference designed to foster fair and efficient carbon markets. One deals with voluntary carbon credits and the other deals with so-called CCMs (compliance carbon markets) and aims to assist with the establishment and supervision of national/governmental schemes. In this episode, Alexander Robson, managing editor, Regulatory Intelligence, is joined by Lindsey Rogerson, senior editor, EMEA wholesale f...
Nov 17, 2022•24 min
Financial crime teams are being urged to pay greater attention to illicit transactions linked to money laundering, illegal betting and corruption. The problem is particularly endemic in the Asia-Pacific region, where gambling is a major way of life. Banks, casinos and other reporting entities are largely oblivious to the extent that organised crime groups have infiltrated the sector, according to sports integrity officials. Some estimates suggest that around a quarter of professional sports has ...
Nov 10, 2022•20 min
This episode examines the impact of Hurricane Ian and, more broadly, climate change, on the insurance industry. The September storm killed at least 119 people and caused at least $50 billion in damage in Florida alone. It may be the state’s costliest storm ever but is only the latest in a series of increasingly severe storms, droughts and wildfires that scientists say are consistent with predicted effects of climate change. Such natural disasters have taxed the insurance industry, and one indust...
Nov 03, 2022•25 min
This episode examines the UK Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill, now before the House of Commons. The legislation is the second part of the government's economic crime plan, announced under the then Cameron government, and which was given fresh impetus by Russia's invasion of Ukraine and a determination to crack down on dirty and kleptocratic money in London. In this episode of Compliance Clarified, Alexander Robson, global managing editor, Regulatory Intelligence, is joined by Helen...
Oct 27, 2022•28 min
This episode examines a crackdown by U.S. regulators against “off-channel” communications on Wall Street. In September 11 major firms including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America were fined a total of $1.8 billion for regulatory violations involving the use of unauthorized communications including texts and WhatsApp instant messages. The violations involved tens of thousands of messages sent or received by senior trading desk managers and their staff, raising the prospect that the...
Oct 20, 2022•28 min
In the tenth and final episode of season 5 of the Compliance Clarified podcast, Susannah Hammond is joined by Helen Chan and Lindsey Rogerson to take another look at personal liability and accountability in financial services. Many jurisdictions have introduced personal accountability regimes in order to drive better risk aware behaviours by senior managers. The practical impact of which was highlighted in our recently published cost of compliance report for 2022 in which nearly half (45%) expec...
Jul 19, 2022•36 min
In the ninth episode of season 5 of the Compliance Clarified podcast, Susannah Hammond is joined by her co-author of the Cost of Compliance report Mike Cowan to take a look at the key findings from the 2022 report. The 2022 cost of compliance report is 13th annual survey report focusing on the challenges expected to be faced by risk and compliance functions at financial services firms around the world. This year’s survey had almost 500 responses from practitioners from banks, insurers, asset and...
Jul 12, 2022•35 min
In the eighth episode of season 5 of the Compliance Clarified podcast, Susannah Hammond is joined by Lindsey Rogerson, Todd Ehret and David Bickley (from Thomson Reuters Practical Law) to take a look at the future of financial services and the sheer breadth of the regulatory change agenda. Compliance officers will be all too familiar with regulatory change – it is the gift that keeps on giving and regulatory change management is a core competency for all risk and compliance functions. So what ar...
Jul 05, 2022•50 min
In the seventh episode of season 5 of the Compliance Clarified podcast, Susannah Hammond is joined by Mike Cowan to look at the compliance challenges posed by data governance. In a digital age more than ever, firms need to embrace the fact that data is a vital strategic asset and from there build a business-wide approach to data aggregation, management, storage, security, retrieval, and destruction — in other words, build a business-specific approach to data governance. The successful governance...
Jun 28, 2022•38 min
In the fifth episode of season 6 of the Compliance Clarified podcast, Susannah Hammond is joined by Rachel Wolcott and Brett Wolf to look at the compliance challenges posed by financial crime in general and sanctions in particular. Links to content referenced in the discussion: European Banking Authority new guidelines for MLROs which come into effect on December 1 2022 https://www.eba.europa.eu/sites/default/documents/files/document_library/Publications/Guidelines/2022/EBA-GL-2022-05%20GLs%20on...
Jun 21, 2022•54 min
In the fifth episode of season 5 of the Compliance Clarified podcast, Susannah Hammond is joined by Lindsey Rogerson and Rachel Wolcott Engler to look at the compliance challenges posed by increasingly vulnerable customers. Compliance officers are used to the concept of vulnerable customers and the need to take additional care to ensure consistently good customer outcomes but with a cost-of-living crisis, digital transformation and a new UK consumer duty the challenges are growing. Links to cont...
Jun 14, 2022•42 min
In the fourth episode of season 5 of the Compliance Clarified podcast, Susannah Hammond is joined by Lindsey Rogerson and Henry Engler to look again at ESG – that is environmental, social and corporate governance and the strain the good intentions are coming under from an uneven global approach, the war in Ukraine and increasing economic challenges. Links to content referenced in the discussion: Article on ISSB standards and how they link to EU and US proposals http://go-ri.tr.com/SZiOMZ Link to...
Jun 07, 2022•41 min
In the third episode of season 5 of the Compliance Clarified podcast, Susannah Hammond is joined by Helen Chan and Mike Cowan to consider the evolving supervisory approach to conduct risk which is a feature of a principles-based approach to financial services regulation and is seeking to ensure that firms put, and are seen to put, the customer first. Firms need to be aware that many regulators around the world are trying to stamp out a tick-box and overly legalistic approach to compliance togeth...
May 31, 2022•39 min
In the second episode of season 5 of the Compliance Clarified podcast, Susannah Hammond is joined by Rachel Wolcott and Mike Cowan looking again at operational risk with, in particular, a focus on the impact of cyber on operational risk and resilience. Links to content referenced in the discussion: Operational resilience: next steps on the PRA’s supervisory roadmap − speech by David Bailey, UK Prudential Regulation Authority https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/speech/2022/april/david-bailey-speaker-...
May 24, 2022•43 min
In the first episode of season 5 of the Compliance Clarified podcast, Susannah Hammond is joined by Todd Ehret and Joe Raczynski to discuss the latest Thomson Reuters special report on all things crypto and the complex regulatory future which is beginning to emerge. Links to content referenced in the discussion: A digital version of the special report ‘Cryptos on Rise 2022’ can be found here https://www.thomsonreuters.com/en/reports/cryptos-on-the-rise-2022.html The takedown of Hydra https://www...
May 17, 2022•47 min
In the tenth, and last, episode of season 4 of the Compliance Clarified podcast, Susannah Hammond is joined by Rachel Wolcott and Brett Wolf to take a look at the current state of play with sanctions and the intended and unintended consequences emerging from the response to the conflict in Ukraine. Links to content referenced in the discussion: Imposition of sanctions deemed to be symbolic https://www.linkedin.com/posts/amlwolf_putin-sanctioned-activity-6904888722626871296-9Swn?utm_source=linked...
Apr 05, 2022•39 min
In the ninth episode of season 4 of the Compliance Clarified podcast, Susannah Hammond is joined by Lindsey Rogerson to take a look at look at all things Islamic finance. Not every financial services firm is going to choose to consider Islamic finance as a strategic opportunity, but it is an area with substantial global potential both in terms of growth and in its ‘green’ credentials. It is also one in which risk and compliance functions would be required to play a critical role. Links to conten...
Mar 29, 2022•27 min
In the eighth episode of season 4 of the Compliance Clarified podcast, Susannah Hammond is joined by Helen Chan to take a look at look at the challenges for risk and compliance functions posed by corporate investigations particularly with a backdrop of geopolitical tensions and with examples from, in the most part, Asia. Links to content referenced in the discussion: Impact of China’s ‘unreliable entity’ list https://www.linkedin.com/posts/helenhchan_unreliable-entity-list-overview-activity-6907...
Mar 22, 2022•24 min
In the seventh episode of season 4 of the Compliance Clarified podcast, Susannah Hammond is joined by Lindsey Rogerson and Michael Cowan to take a look at the challenges and indeed threat posed by Big Tech to mainstream financial services. The perceived benefits of allowing tech firms to operate with a banking licence are seen to be ‘compelling but require scrutiny’. Unburdened by legacy infrastructure, tech firms often offer superior technology and user-friendly apps that may allow them to reac...
Mar 15, 2022•35 min
In the sixth episode of season 4 of the Compliance Clarified podcast, Susannah Hammond is joined by Lindsey Rogerson and Hedwige Nuyens who is, among other things, the chair of European Women on Boards to celebrate International Womens Day. “Any workplace that fails to harness the energy and creativity of its women is at a huge disadvantage in the modern world." Links to content referenced in the discussion: World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap report https://www.internationalwomensday.com/Mis...
Mar 08, 2022•37 min
In the fifth episode of season 4 of the Compliance Clarified podcast, Susannah Hammond is joined by Lindsey Rogerson and Rachel Wolcott, to discuss where we are now with Brexit. In one sense Brexit seems a pre-pandemic age ago – Brexit day was 31st January 2020 before COVID became headline news and before the world went into lockdown. So, a couple of years on from Brexit while there hasn’t been the ‘bonfire of the regulations’ what we have seen is incremental granular creeping change. Links to c...
Mar 01, 2022•50 min
In the fourth episode of season 4 of the Compliance Clarified podcast, Susannah Hammond is joined by Lindsey Rogerson and Stacey English, director of market intelligence at Theta Lake, to discuss all things hybrid working – what we were all bounced into at the start of the pandemic has, in some shape or form, become the new normal with many, if not all, financial services firms adopting some sort of flexible working going forward. Links to content referenced in the discussion: 10 compliance risk...
Feb 22, 2022•36 min
In the third episode of season 4 of the Compliance Clarified podcast, Susannah Hammond is joined by Alex Robson, Rachel Wolcott and Brett Wolf to take a fresh look at how the implications of tackling financial crime are beginning to shape up. There is a wide swathe of financial crime challenges for 2022 with both the European Union and the UK seeking to breathe life into their anti-money laundering regimes which are perceived to be ‘weak’. On the other side of the pond the U.S. there are warning...
Feb 15, 2022•49 min
In the second episode of season 4 of the Compliance Clarified podcast, Susannah Hammond is joined by Mike Cowan to discuss the five key risks for senior managers in financial services firms in 2022. Now at the start of 2022, financial institutions need to consider the changes they might need to make permanent after their largely successful response to the COVID-19 pandemic. A combination of flexibility, deployment of technology and, in the case of banks, balance sheets which had been substantial...
Feb 08, 2022•48 min
In the first episode of season 4 of the Compliance Clarified podcast, Susannah Hammond is joined by Mike Cowan to discuss the ten things the compliance officers of financial services firms need to consider in 2022. Heading into 2022, the pandemic should have been in the rear-view mirror, but instead the world is dealing with the impact of another variant of COVID-19. Many financial services firms had scheduled post-pandemic reviews but those have morphed into a rolling review of the efficacy of ...
Feb 01, 2022•46 min
