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To summarize the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board’s 2017 Compliance Advisory for brokers, dealers and municipal securities dealers.

Summarizes several Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB) rules that the Compliance Advisory highlights as presenting key compliance risks for brokers, dealers and municipal securities dealers. Discusses the factors included in the Compliance Advisory that dealers should consider when evaluating compliance procedures and controls.

By highlighting some key compliance risks and providing considerations tailored to those risks, the Compliance Advisory can be used as a tool to aid dealers in developing and assessing effective compliance programs.

Dealers should consider reviewing their firm’s existing compliance policies and procedures in light of the considerations discussed in the Compliance Advisory.

Practical guidance from experienced securities and financial services regulatory lawyers.

To gauge the extent to which the global financial system is anti‐money laundering (AML)/countering the financing of terrorism (CFT) prepared by analysing and comparing the AML/CFT systems of Financial Action Task Force (FATF) members with countries belonging to regional AML organisations.

Mutual evaluation data of 16 FATF members and 21 non‐FATF countries is analysed and compared using Kruskal‐Wallis and paired‐t tests to determine similarities and differences across the two groups of countries.

AML/CFT systems of FATF members and non‐FATF countries are poor. The lack of compliance with global AML/CFT standards leaves so many holes in these countries' regulatory, financial, and legal systems that money laundering with or without any relationship to the financing of terrorism, would be relatively easy to achieve.

In using an analytical approach it has been necessary to put numerical values on compliance levels used by the FATF. Given that these are very broad, substituting a single value for each compliance level will provide only a crude measure of compliance for comparisons to be made. The results should therefore be used as a guide to the ranking and compliance of countries rather than some exact measurement of compliance.

There will need to be follow‐up visits to this round of mutual evaluations to evaluate country responses to their poor assessments.

Publication of mutual evaluations by the FATF and a number of regional bodies has enabled a comparison of AML/CFT systems from countries around the world. Lack of data has not enabled this to be done before.

To summarize the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board’s 2016 Compliance Advisory for brokers, dealers and municipal securities dealers.

Summarizes several Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB) rules that the Compliance Advisory highlights as presenting key compliance risks for brokers, dealers and municipal securities dealers. Discusses the factors included in the Compliance Advisory that dealers should consider when evaluating compliance procedures and controls.

By highlighting some key compliance risks and providing considerations tailored to those risks, the Compliance Advisory can be used as a tool to aid dealers in developing and assessing effective compliance programs.

Dealers should consider reviewing their firms’ existing compliance policies and procedures in light of the considerations discussed in the Compliance Advisory.

Practical guidance from experienced securities and financial services regulatory lawyers.

The increasing use of cost‐benefit analysis (CBA) in financial regulation is bringing a sharper focus on the benefits conferred by regulation. This paper addresses the impact of that sharper focus on the compliance culture of regulated firms. Why focus on the benefits of regulation? What does CBA have to offer to the compliance culture of authorised firms? How does the introduction of CBA fit in with other developments in the regulatory arena? This paper offers some tentative answers to these questions.

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision under the auspices of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) published a consultation paper in late 2003 on the compliance function in banks. The aim of the consultation paper is to set out the views of banking supervisors and provide basic guidance for banks. Whereas there is no attempt to prescribe a uniform approach, a clear set of general principles is laid down for the role of the compliance function within banking organisations. Furthermore, recognition is given to the fact that diversity exists between banks with respect to their internal organisation of the compliance function and also to diversity in the legal and regulatory environment affecting the compliance function across jurisdictions. The core objectives of this paper are to examine the BIS approach to the compliance function and look at how this is likely to evolve. The authors draw on experience from the UK life assurance industry where substantial inroads have been made to embed a compliance competent culture within such types of financial institutions. A partnership approach is highlighted as essential to achieving a viable and meaningful compliance function. Finally, an ethical approach is explored as the possible future direction for banks. The first section reviews the new principles for the compliance function; the second section describes issues that arise; the third section analyses a partnership approach and explores an ethical approach; and the final section provides a summary and conclusion.

Compliance competence is key to the operation and reputation of the financial services sector and is now completely embedded in the way financial services organisations carry on investment business. It is also fundamental to the Financial Services Authority (FSA) in seeking to achieve its regulatory objectives as set out in sections 3‐6 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. A great deal has been written on the topic of compliance and competence and the core objective of this paper is to offer a compliance competence model for financial institutions that recognises and highlights the importance of the regulator and the regulated working together as partners.

A unique compliance competence partnership approach model, arising from case study research, is proposed and consists of three key elements: good compliance practice, good ethical practice and a positive FSA relationship. The three elements are represented as a tripod with three mainstays that are intrinsically linked. The mainstays are supported by cross‐members that consist of underlying and intrinsic issues of compliance competence.

The regulator and regulated need to work together in a proactive partnership. Organisation need to formulate a clear ethical policy involving employees from every aspect.

The partnership approach model, advocated here, would create a real partnership between the FSA and its regulated organisations.

This paper sets out to assess the role of the chief compliance officer (“CCO”), how the CCO performs his/her duties, and how the CCO interacts with the fund's board three years after the adoption of Rule 38a‐1 under the Investment Company Act of 1940.

Reviews the CCO's responsibilities under Rule 38a‐1, discusses how the CCO role has evolved since the rule was promulgated, and focuses on key issues such as oversight versus supervision, the annual review process, risk assessement, testing methodologies, and the annual report to the fund board on the adequacy and operation of the fund's compliance program.

Properly conducted compliance requires the support of a wide range of the advisory/administrative team with the CCO playing the role of conductor of the orchestra. More and more CCOs seek to distance themselves from approving the day‐to‐day actions of other employees, so they cannot be considered to have assumed supervisory responsibility for those employees. Although a fund is required to perform an annual review of the adequacy of its compliance programs and its Primary Service Providers' compliance programs, most CCOs have found the review process is ongoing and occurs continuously throughout the year. Now that these compliance programs have been in place for two years, more CCOs are devoting time and resources to identify high‐risk areas and to implement transactional, periodic, and forensic testing programs. The CCO annual report has taken many different shapes and sizes, but generally summarizes material changes to the fund's compliance policies and procedures that have already been reported to the board.

A current, practical assessment of the CCO role by expert lawyers who advise funds on their compliance programs.

There is much talk of ‘compliance culture’ and, latterly, ‘compliance ethos’ and it is generally assumed that this is a good thing, by definition. This paper suggests that the existence of a compliance culture is never in doubt — all firms have one, the question is what is its orientation? The paper proposes three possible states of a compliance culture and suggests some qualitative measures of a positive or pro‐compliance culture. The paper is an extract from a submission made to NatWest Life's Audit and Compliance Committee in February 1995.

In most industries, legal entities of a certain size and complexity must have a compliance function. Such requirement is either set forth by regulatory law or the governance rules of the relevant organisation. In the highly regulated credit industry, the role and responsibilities of the compliance function are more precisely defined than in other industries. This paper aims to analyse the personal accountability of senior compliance officers in a bank’s compliance function when there is a failure of proper compliance.

This paper is based on a keynote addressed at Jesus College, University of Cambridge, 7 September 2016. The author approaches the issue of senior compliance management by analysing development of international financial regulation with respect to legal requirements for compliance function. Subsequently, the author determines what constitutes senior compliance management and applies the various legal regimes to situations of compliance failures.

While the accountability of the chief compliance officer and deputy for compliance failures is not set forth in regulatory law, courts and scholars have acknowledged such personal responsibility exists resorting to principles of civil law (contracts or torts), criminal law or employment law. Approaches and questions for this legal analysis are similar in a civil law as well as in common law jurisdiction. The most relevant breach of contract of the chief compliance officer will be an omission to act (forbearance), i.e. the failure to properly organize the compliance function and/or to immediately report a compliance risk to the board.

Scholarly work in the law of compliance is still somewhat limited, thus the research also includes practitioners’ observations. The accountability of senior compliance management for compliance failures represents a growing trend in corporate governance to seek individual accountability for corporate misconduct; see, for example, US Department of Justice (DOJ) in its so-called Yates memorandum on “individual accountability for corporate wrongdoing”.

In incidents of non-compliance, banks and their compliance officers should be able to exculpate themselves if they can demonstrate proper organization of the compliance function.

The originality of this general review is to focus the analysis of accountability of senior compliance management on the credit industry and to consider latest developments in international financial regulation, such as the supervisory review and evaluation process (SREP) by the European Central Bank (ECB) in the single supervisory mechanism (SSM) or the corporate governance principles for banks by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS).

If financial services institutions (FSIs) do not comply with a variety of new regulations they can face criminal charges. Despite budget pressures they must therefore continue to invest in technologies in support of their compliance mandate. This paper describes the major regulations applying to FSIs and discusses IT spending to comply with those regulations.