GRC & The Cloud Blog

Although Wednesday's announcement of a record £10.5m should come as no surprise to anyone involved in the compliance industry, it should serve as an continuing reminder of the risk of non-compliance. All areas within SSE's sales approach had major compliance issues, from phone to doorstep sales. According to Ofgem, the mis-selling of the company's products originates from their internal procedures proving to be inadequate, in terms of the inability to fully track and audit their sales processes. Of course, when fundamental failings of this nature occur, all aspects of a business are affected.

Last July, Xactium published an insight into the FSA’s ‘Twin Peaks’ Model. On the 1st April these regulations will be fully implemented. These significant changes will no doubt affect all manner of global organisations alongside the financial sector. Here we visit 4 tips for dealing with these new changes within your organisation and consider some of the ways in which your business might be affected by the new FSA structure.

Since the financial crisis, Boards of Directors have been under increasing pressure to cultivate a new working regime which benefits the customer base and ensures the future prosperity of the company. The obligation of the Board to meet the needs of this cultural evolution is magnified by growing time constraints, media coverage and public perception.

The recent media frenzy regarding the content of processed meat products has intensified questions and concerns about the depth and robustness of the meat industry’s tests and regulations.

The saga began last month when beef produced by an Irish meat supplier was discovered to have unknown quantities of equine DNA. Major supermarket chains in the ROI and UK acted by withdrawing particular products from the ABP Food Group. As a result of its findings, the the Irish Food Safety Authority and British Food Standards Authority have scrutinised facilities supplying the contaminated meat.

When the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision published their Liquidity Coverage Ratio (LCR) in December 2010 banks warned of the potential impact on lending.

Last week the committee responded positively by updating the regulations, easing liquidity requirements and pushing back the final implementation date from 2015 to 2019.

A recent survey by Deloitte has highlighted a number interesting risk management trends. Deloitte interviewed over 190 CIO's in a wide variety of industries regarding their reaction to risk in the current highly volatile environment.

The area of Human Resources should not be forgotten when considering your organization's strategy for managing risk and compliance.  With myriad responses to regulations in the pipeline - such as AIFMD, Solvency II, Basel III, Fatca, and so on, it is often easy to focus on putting in place new business processes, rather than ensuring your staff have the right knowledge, skills, capabilities and accountabilities to deal with these challenges.

In a year when regulations have been regularly in the news with the LIBOR scandal, UBS rogue trader Kweku Adoboli and Deutsche Bank's recent whistleblower travails, surely there could not be worse to come? 

1. Link policies and procedures to company objectives

All too frequently Business Managers come across staff unaware of the importance of policies and procedures in contributing to company objectives. Underestimating policies and policy management in the successful running of your business is a pitfall sometimes difficult to avoid.  Adding your company policies to associated business objectives is a practical way to ensure that the company and staff remain focused.