Project Description
If you are involved in running a regulated business in the Isle of Man then it’s a fair bet that notice of an impending supervisory visit from the FSA is close to the bottom of your wish list.
Regulatory visits are inevitably stress inducing. Not only will your business need to demonstrate compliance with the AML/CFT Code and applicable regulations such as the Rule Book or Corporate Governance Code but the new civil penalty regime can potentially turn what might previously have been a slap on the wrist for an oversight into a fine together with associated reputational damage for your firm and its directors.
The stakes are higher than ever before.
Of course Rowany can’t entirely eliminate the stress caused by an impending IOMFSA visit or guarantee a no hassle, flying colours visit from a happy regulator but through our unique combination of friendly expertise and experience, we can help you manage your way through this difficult time with a clear focus on maximising your chances of a positive conclusion.
Our services in relation to IOMFSA visits can include some or all of the following…
Pre-visit AML/CFT review – We can review your policies and procedures. This would include a review of your business, client and technology risk assessments, an examination of your CDD processes and your ongoing monitoring programme with reference to our current view of best practices. This is a ‘warts and all’ review – our aim is to identify weaknesses so, where possible they can be addressed prior to the visit.
Pre-visit regulatory review – We can review your business objectives, strategies and significant policies and procedures for compliance with the Rule Book or Corporate Governance Code, as appropriate. Our focus will be on areas of risk, as identified by the board, together with any areas that currently appear to be receiving attention from IOMFSA and may include a review of the risk management systems and controls, significant outsourced functions, client money, management information systems, including the reporting to the board of compliance and internal audit as appropriate, conflict management and regulatory reporting mechanisms. The scope of our review will be agreed in advance.
Staff interviews – The FSA visit process generally involves their staff conducting on site interviews. We can interview your staff to help you identify weaknesses in their knowledge and where necessary we can provide additional training to ensure these are addressed.
Pre-visit Questionnaire. We can review and comment on your pre-visit questionnaire (or help you prepare it). This is to help ensure that the information is presented accurately and clearly for the Regulator’s better understanding of your business.
During the visit. We can attend the visit as an independent consultant. We will take notes, and where required advise you. We cannot provide you with legal advice but we will use our knowledge and experience to help you address queries posed during the visit.
End of the visit summary meeting. The IOMFSA’s comments at the end of the visit will give you an important indication of the IOMFSAs findings and their overall view of your business. We can attend the closing meeting, we will take notes and where appropriate advise you on technical aspects.
IOMFSA visit report. Following the visit the IOMFSA will produce a report outlining their findings and including matters that, in their view, require remedial action. We will review the report for reasonableness and also, depending on our involvement in the visit, the notes that we took while they were on-site.
Remedial action assistance. Where required we can help you with reviewing or where appropriate designing and implementing a remedial action plan that meets the IOMFSAs expectations.
We expect that many relevant businesses will not require assistance with all of these aspects of a regulatory visit as their own internal compliance staff will deal with such matters. For this reason, we are happy to design a bespoke support package including some of these components which is tailored to meet their needs.
For further information please contact Francesca on 200740 or francesca@rowany.im
