It’s hot out there and with summer time here with a bang and we hope you’re keeping cool and on top of business matters. Indeed with holiday season upon us, it’s a great time for wealth manager and adviser firms to employ RegTech allowing them to take a step back and ‘Summer clean’ their business across some key regulatory issues such as Risk management, Data quality and management information (MI):
How can you do this?
The Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) 2019/2020 business plan focused on how firms data needs to not only be secure but also provide quality MI for them to improve performance and improve professional practice.
Advisers and wealth managers need to be aware that The FCA has announced it has started work to improve the way it collects data from firms with plans to introduce a new platform as part of this work. This new platform will replace Gabriel, the regulator’s main regulatory data collection system.
What data does the FCA collect from firms?
Data is collected from regulated firms to help the Authority to assess firms’ compliance with its requirements – for example, on business conduct, on the charges levied by advisers and consultants and on prudential requirements.
In December 2016, the FCA explained why it collects data from advisers, as the Financial Times reported.
The majority of data is collected via the regulator’s ‘Gabriel’ data collection system, which sees the collection of over 500,000 submissions annually, across 120,000 users and 52,000 firms.
What is changing?
The regulator wants firms to utilise the benefits of RegTech – to make regulatory compliance more streamlined and effective.
Now, the FCA has started work to improve the way it collects data from firms. As part of this, it plans to replace its current Gabriel data collection system with a new platform.
Work is ‘at an early stage’ and ‘early changes to the platform are expected to be technology focused, so initially there will be no change to the way data is provided by firms’.
How can you benefit?
- Firms need to assess the quality of their data first and foremost, this means a root and branch review of their client data collated through back office technology including Client relationship management tech and/or data spread sheets
- Once done, a Data Cleanse then needs to take place ensuring firms have the right information and ditched any unclean data plus ensure data flows such as straight through processing from funds/platforms is streamlined and up-to-date
- By applying RegTech, firms can then self audit and benchmark if they are compliant or not, sync this with back office tech to ensure their data is up to standard and then benefit from the work The FCA are now conducting across their Digital Regulatory Reporting (DRR) initiative.
- The DRR will essentially allow RegTech to assess the firm against the rulebook and sync with a new ‘Gabriel’ like system so streamlining regulatory reporting and allowing Compliance officers (CF10’s or SMF16 under the new SM&CR) and the FCA to gain the right and meaningful MI
So firms now have the opportunity to review compliance and business support services and employ RegTech to ensure they are gaining maximum value and ensure they meet the rules and risk management requirements.
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