Culture of Compliance

Key questions:

1. Does the management team, as well as the investment personnel, believe that  governance processes are important and understand the legal and regulatory requirements  impacting their roles?
2. Does your chief compliance officer have respect and influence in your organisation?
3. Do risk and compliance personnel raise issues to you (or your senior management team) for consideration, even when the issues concern a major profit centre?

If you answered “No” to any of these questions, you are at risk of not realising that something has gone awry until it is too late. You must manage regulatory and legal issues just as closely as you would manage financial challenges

Organisational Structure

Key questions:

1. Does your chief compliance officer have direct access to your governing board or executive committee?
2. Have you
  (i) identified the laws that apply to your company, your investment vehicles, and your investments, and
  (ii) have you incorporated these requirements into operational processes?
3. Is there a process for keeping the information gathered in #2 up-to-date reflecting both changes to laws, changes to the market place, and new activities?

If the answer is “No” to any of these questions, you need to build these processes now.

Compliance Manual

Key questions:

1. Is your compliance manual tailored to your business?
2. Is it meaningful to you and your staff so that you use it to obtain guidance in unusual or tricky situations?
3. Do the investment personnel appreciate the importance of the policies and procedures that apply to them?

If you answered “No” to more than one of these, you probably do not have satisfactory compliance manual in place.