After five months of review, the SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) has released a Risk Alert regarding compliance and process protocols during the era of COVID-19. As the pandemic continues, investment management firms have been challenged to maintain the high-quality service and standards their clients and the SEC demand.
OCIE Identifies Six Areas of Concern
Firms should take time to review:
- protection of investors’ assets
- supervision of personnel
- practices relating to fees, expenses, and financial transactions
- investment fraud
- business continuity
- the protection of investor and other sensitive information.
In this series, you’ll get a detailed breakdown of each of these six areas of concern.
Supervision of Your Personnel
Since its inception, OpsCheck has provided the ideal platform for oversight of staff performance, made all the more pressing with the now-widespread adoption of remote work sites.
With supervisors and managers no longer having face-to-face access to staff, OpsCheck provides the best means for tracking and reviewing workflows and status in real-time whether a process is performed inhouse or remotely.
Lessen Fraud Risk
With the sensitivity of market volatility and trade recommendations at risk for fraud (such as dubious company claims regarding vaccine production and sales), OpsCheck allows a means for heightened compliance review prior to any trades. This oversight has become increasingly necessary for reviews of trading performed off-site.
Due diligence has also moved more remotely, necessitating a higher scrutiny of any third-party services and relationships. OpsCheck can immediately accommodate new layers of review without delay to reflect tighter oversight demands.
Enhanced Communications
Perhaps one the most important tools OpsChecks can provide is a closed system for internal company communications. With remote work, the temptation to use personal devices has risen substantially, creating a potential hacking risk as well as lost data that should remain on firm servers.
And, of course, despite the pandemic, normal staffing needs continue with new hires and departing employees as well as dealing with formally rare issues such as furloughs, temporary staffing, and benefits management. In addition to its key contributions to the investment teams, OpsCheck is equally a vital and responsive management tool for human resources development by providing onboarding process review, alerting to background check needs as well as ongoing staff examination requirements and maintenance of Forum 4U information.
Looking to stay ahead of the game when it comes to supervising your personnel? OpsCheck brings the best parts of innovative software to a centralized product focused on operational management.
Watch our founder Frank Caccio break down the latest product offering in his demo: