Environmental compliance is now a non-negotiable part of ethical business practices in today's corporate climate. Businesses of all kinds are forced to prioritise sustainability as consumer expectations rise and ESG regulations become more stringent.
The goal of this article is to give an overview of environmental compliance while also providing advice on how firms can successfully incorporate sustainability initiatives and environmental improvement plans into their daily operations.
In previous blogs, we have looked at key issues identified from the FinCEN files and then how the lack of an effective compliance culture can impact on the operations of financial institutions. This time, we focus on the recent launch of the FCA's ‘In Confidence, With Confidence’ campaign and look at what's really needed to encourage whistleblowing in financial services.
Understanding the Financial Conduct Authority’s focus
We’ve all been living through a wild year without equal and now, as the tide hopefully turns on Covid-19, we find ourselves moving forward with renewed impetus, despite the pandemic and the effects of Brexit remaining a big part of the picture. With those factors and others in mind, this article’s going to think about the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and three clear areas of regulatory focus that it’s currently concentrating on:
- Governance, culture and individual accountability
- Conduct and enforcement
- Operational and financial resilience
Now, we anticipate that all of these matters will generate increased FCA scrutiny – and enforcement action – in the months ahead, so they’re certainly subjects worth discussing. To help me do so, I’m delighted to be able to draw upon the insights and expertise of Philippa Grocott, Managing Partner at the financial services training and consultancy firm FSTP.
Aside from the fact that 2020 has been an unprecedented year for business challenges, there are a variety of reasons why your business growth management may not be hitting the milestones expected. In this article, we take the perspective of a Finance Director or CFO and examine some factors in the business growth process that may be holding the business back. We also discuss practical ideas for how to manage business growth more assertively in 2021 and beyond.
- Topic:
- Finance
One of the fundamentals of being human is a desire to work with or alongside others. By working as a team, we can often achieve more; and the process of focusing on achieving a shared goal can be a positive experience too. Although Finance teams have traditionally sat together and worked in groups, the world of work is changing. The onward march of technology, a tsunami of data, and the rise of remote working, have all had an impact on the Finance function. In this brave new world – how can you empower Finance to work effectively as a team?
- Topic:
- Finance
The personal finance landscape has changed massively since the beginning of covid with people needing to find ways to cope with multiple lockdowns and dramatic shifts in their lifestyle.
Across the UK we have seen employees dealing with reduced hours, home working and even redundancy and so it is no surprise that there has been a knock-on effect on people’s personal finances. In fact, more than 14.9m people have seen a negative shift in their personal financial situation according to debt charity StepChange.
In this post, we’re looking at the challenges that people have had to face due to COVID and the ways that the personal finance landscape has changed as a result.
- Topic:
- Human Resources
The SRA has recently sent out an email to 7,000 Compliance Officers for Legal Practice (COLPs) asking them to confirm the following:
“I confirm that the information I have given is correct, to the best of my knowledge and belief and that I will notify you if anything changes in respect of the information provided in the future”.
The declaration requires all firms who fall within the scope of the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 (the Regulations), to declare they have a compliant firm-wide risk assessment in place that takes account of information published by the SRA and includes references to the firms' customers, countries or geographic areas in which it operates, products and services, transaction and delivery channels.
If you have not received this email, we recommend that you contact the SRA immediately to avoid missing the deadline to respond (31st January 2020).
- Topic:
- Legal
What is 5AMLD?
5AMLD follows on as a series of updates to the 4th Anti-Money Laundering Directive that came into UK law via the Money Laundering Regulations 2017.
- Topic:
- Legal
In an ideal world incidents and issues would not happen, but unfortunately, we don’t work in such a world. At some point something is likely to go wrong whether it be a mistake on a client file, or a cyber breach or incident. When an incident does occur, rectifying and learning from it is the important thing.
The SRA recognises that firms don’t operate in an ideal world and that incidents happen, but they will be looking for firms to act appropriately in resolving issues and making sure any detriment to clients and reputational damage to the profession is reduced as much as possible.
- Topic:
- Legal
Almost all solo-regulated FCA firms will be expected to comply with the regime by 9 December 2019.
These are our top five tips for what you should have done and be doing now to prepare:
- Topic:
- Legal
