A compliance professional has urged regulated companies to be prepared for an audit by updating their compliance reporting procedures or danger dealing with fines.
Martin Cheek, managing director of digital compliance agency SmartSearch, warned that inefficient, legacy reporting processes are undermining the productiveness of companies. This leaves them uncovered to pointless downtime, fines and reputational injury within the occasion of a breach of anti-money laundering or sanctions laws.
“Corporations are required to usually replace their compliance insurance policies and procedures and a part of that course of is to display a sturdy and up-to-date audit path, giving a complete overview of their adherence to regulatory pointers,” stated Cheek.
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“Breaching the principles unintentionally will not be a defence. If the regulator knocks in your door, not having a correct audit path is inviting a superb and reputational injury.
“Being audit-ready additionally minimises the appreciable – and dear – administration time which comes when a possible breach is being investigated.
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“Being audit-ready doesn’t simply save money and time, it additionally safeguards reputations and avoids the hefty fines and prison prosecutions that include compliance breaches.”
Cheek’s feedback come forward of the following shopper obligation milestone on 30 April.
The brand new shopper obligation requires all companies to display that they’ve positioned shopper care on the coronary heart of their enterprise fashions. This contains proof that their anti money-laundering checks are updated, one of many providers supplied by SmartSearch.
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