Any organization or business must keep in compliance with the regulatory laws and changes in their country. Non-compliance not only results in negative publicity but can also be prohibitively expensive. For instance, the annual cost of non-compliance for businesses is $ 14.8 million. One may wish to believe that the cost of maintaining compliance could be exorbitant. However, the cost incurred due to non-compliance turns out to be 2.71 times the cost of adhering to compliance. If a company commits a severe GDPR violation, fines can go up to 20 million Euros or 2% of revenues, whichever is higher.
Therefore, investment compliance services have become tremendously popular in the last few years. Firms offering such services can help companies with adhering to compliances and preventing them from committing violations.
Why does a company need investment compliance services?
There are multiple regulatory and compliance requirements that can be complicated and time-consuming to handle. The right investment compliance services firm can assist with risk management and compliance adherence.
They also perform the following activities:
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They can monitor the investment guidelines of the organization.
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They ensure that the capital complies with the regulations set by the federal authorities of the country.
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They detect and immediately verify problems affecting non-compliance and investment.
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They offer a detailed report to the firm about compliance to government agencies, stakeholders, and shareholders.
Why must a firm implement the best practices in investment compliance?
In terms of transparency and risk tolerance, a firm needs to be careful about implementing investment compliance services. A professional service company ensures that the client adheres to the best practices by guiding them based on the regulations.
A few of them are given below:
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Proper interpretation of the regulations.
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Doing a proper review and testing of investment compliance.
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An exemplary implementation of the automated systems.
1) Proper interpretation of the regulations
Few businesses tend to misinterpret the regulations differently. That can cause several problems. The client documents have the investment management agreement or IMA that comes with the guidelines.
This is the statement of additional information and the prospectus. These two are crucial parameters for any business to function smoothly in any country. Significantly, the paperwork is converted correctly to the standard Guideline Coding Guide (GCG).
Using this kind of guide enables the firm to make the right decisions in the right direction. Inconsistencies are greatly reduced, and coding rules are not broken. These existing rules are made into investment compliance rules library to reduce duplicity.
Coming up with a standard Guideline Coding Guide (GCG) should not be a difficult task. Usually, the senior team members in the investment compliance services firm are given the task. They design it in such a way that it is easy to understand and implement.
2) Conducting an extensive review and testing of investment compliance
A credible investment compliance services firm knows the importance of having a compliance rules library. From an operational perspective, it is crucial because it contains the required elements to function technically.
This also decreases the risk of not being able to follow the rule book. A business is encouraged to conduct tests and reviews on the compliance rules library. This enables them to find inconsistencies and eradicate them.
A few of the best practices for reviews and testing are as follows:
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Be aware of the rule naming convention. This helps to define the rules and reduce duplicity.
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To detect and then remove unwanted rules that can affect the business from growing.
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To detect the closed accounts.
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To decrease the false data that can create unwanted issues.
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To detect duplicate rules using a similar rule name approach.
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To design a test case for coming up with proper regulations.
3) The appropriate implementation of automated systems.
Today, automated systems are abundant. Businesses and firms are making use of them to increase their performance in all aspects.
But, why use automation?
It immensely helps in the reduction of time for performing mundane tasks.
It helps compliance professionals to automate the processes that were done manually on a repeated basis. This enables them to focus and concentrate on important projects. If the business has chosen to use an automation system, then they must begin the procedure steadily.
The procedure should be transparent at all times. It results in quick and top-notch results for the firm. Besides, it adds immense value to the raising fund process for the organization. There is no denying that automation cannot replace human intelligence, but it can be used at certain places to increase productivity.
An investment compliance services firm can provide its expertise and monitor the organization through its services.
Keeping track of the compliance regulations can be tricky and depends on several parameters. Hence, it is a wise decision to outsource the investment compliance services which can generate more funding and avoid the firm from legal ramifications.
