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This focused course will cover the essentials of how to prepare, execute and report on a compliance monitoring visit, including planning, monitoring techniques and risk identification. It will also explore some of the people and ‘political’ challenges encountered, and suggest how these can be resolved or avoided.

Key issues to be covered in this course will include:

• Making the most efficient use of Compliance resource: what skills are required and how are they deployed to greatest effect


• How best to obtain senior management and business support for monitoring


• Knowing when monitoring visits are necessary and when they can be avoided or substituted with other monitoring approaches


• Successful methods for communicating the objectives of a monitoring visit to those under review


• Maintaining the focus of a monitoring visit: when to apply judgement or discretion


• Effective techniques for providing clear and meaningful feedback from a monitoring visit


• How to recognise, and overcome, overt or hidden resistance to compliance monitoring

This course will be of value to Compliance and Monitoring staff in retail banks, building societies, insurance companies, wealth managers and intermediaries with multiple branches or customer facing offices. The programme is designed for those individuals who are new to Compliance, have little experience of monitoring visits or are about to approach this challenge for the first time. It will also benefit more experienced staff who wish to refresh their knowledge of this area or benchmark the fundamentals of good practice.

This highly practical event will use focused presentations, case studies, worked exercises and interactive discussions to define and illustrate the key steps in preparing for and executing an effective monitoring visit.
Registration from: 9.00am
Sessions commence: 9.30am
Close of course: 4.30pm

Compliance Monitoring in Context: FSA Update and Activity Report
This session will provide an analysis of key developments and current hotspots in the regulatory environment for retail financial services firms and explore the likely practical and operational implications.

Deciding whether a Compliance Monitoring Visit is Necessary or Appropriate

• Must every visit have a reason?
• Risk analysis and assessment
• Reviewing available desk-top monitoring, management information and KPIs
• Validating the purpose and intended outcomes
• Considering the impact on your compliance monitoring plan and priorities
  RMAR implications
  

Preparing for a Monitoring Visit

• Defining and agreeing the objectives of the visit
• Allocating resource, time and personnel
• Selecting who to interview and what to review
• How to arrange and confirm the visit
• Identifying and documenting the process
• What can be checked and prepared in advance
• Themed Visits
• How to choose and prepare the personnel conducting the visit
• Role of technology

This session will conclude with a case study scenario, in which delegates will consider what information is required and who should be interviewed in preparation for a visit.

The Visit – How to Make It Work

• Interviewing skills and techniques
• Applying judgement: responding to marginal compliance
• Applying discretion to identify and resolve issues
• Recognising and dealing with resistance
• When to give feedback and to whom
• Identifying issues that need to be raised at the management level
• Responding to adverse reactions and bad news
• Escalation procedures: who should be involved, and when

Faced with particular information after a visit how do you set about identifying the key issues to report and to whom?

Effective Reporting and Feedback

• Report planning: allowing sufficient time
• Who is the report for: understanding the needs and expectations of different stakeholders
• What information to include and how best to present it
• How to ensure accuracy
• Pros and cons of issuing a draft: should you allow or accept challenges?
• Providing meaningful feedback
• Following up