Regulatory Compliance |

Regulatory Compliance Environment Maintenance

Regulatory Compliance is a term generally used to describe the policies and processes that organizations use to ensure that they adhere to the laws, rules and regulations promulgated by financial control agencies in their jurisdiction. Those rules and regulations are designed to ensure that activity in the markets is fair, transparent and robust, both between the institutions themselves (the so-called professional market) and, probably more importantly, the institutions selling services or products to private individuals.

Regulatory Compliance also describes the goal that corporations or public agencies aspire to in their efforts to ensure that personnel are aware of and take steps to comply with relevant laws and regulations. This includes monitoring, reviewing, controlling and retaining data or records which can be used for the purpose of implementing or validating compliance.

A key component of Regulatory Compliance is the variety of policies and processes firms must have in place to meet regulatory requirements. This includes processes to thwart crime, in particular money laundering, fraud and counter terrorist financing. There is probably nothing that can damage the reputation of a business more nor leave it more exposed to serious regulatory sanction and fines than the suggestion that it has been used as a conduit for money laundering or, even worse, a terrorist act.

Even if the institution is an innocent participant, the very link of its name to an incident can be damaging. So the institution needs as much help as possible to identify, control, regulate and monitor communications that could pose a risk to the business or its employees. With the proper technologies and processes in place the business can catch and prevent an incident before it occurs and sometimes catch a criminal in the act.

Money laundering is a frequent concern to businesses and the government as the act of money laundering is typically centered around making the proceeds of criminal activity appear innocent and legal. This criminal activity includes drug trafficking, bribery, extortion, embezzlement, and theft. The government has steadily sought out those that permit the laundering of unscrupulously attained funds as it always leads to a criminal or the planning of a crime.

Anti-Money Laundering processes and controls helps banks and financial institutions protect themselves and their reputation from these criminal activities.

Key elements of a sound Anti-Money Laundering program are:

Minimum Standards and Policies, which clearly set out your philosophy on crime prevention and business requirements
Strong “Know Your Customer” checks at customer on-boarding to identify and exclude known criminals but also to ensure you know the true identity of the customers you do take on
Processes (very often automated) that monitor the activities on customer accounts to identify suspicious activity and to check incoming and outgoing payments for unauthorized transactions
Retention of customer data, files and records of transactions for required legal and audit periods
Enforcement and escalation process for investigating and acting on suspicious activity

Regulatory Realms

Technically Creative understands the different regulatory realms, and our knowledge of these different realms helps us assist you to be 100% compliant for any regulatory audit.

Sarbanes-Oxley

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (often shortened to SOX) was passed by the U.S. Congress to protect shareholders and the general public from accounting errors and fraudulent practices in the enterprise, as well as improve the accuracy of corporate disclosures. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) administers the act, which sets deadlines for compliance and publishes rules on requirements.

ITAR

ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations) and the EAR (Export Administration Regulations) are export control regulations run by different departments of the US Government. Both regulations are designed to help ensure that defense related technology does not get into the wrong hands. An export license is a general term for both ITAR and EAR controlled items that the US Government has granted permission to transport or sell items to foreign countries or parties.

Dodd-Frank

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act is intended to promote the financial stability of the United States by improving accountability and transparency in the financial system, to end “too big to fail”, to protect the American taxpayer by ending bailouts, to protect consumers from abusive financial services practices, and for a multitude of other purposes.

HIPAA

HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996) is United States legislation that provides data privacy and security provisions for safeguarding medical information.