Essential Strategies for Financial Services Compliance, 2nd Edition

Chapter 4Mapping Your Compliance Universe

There comes a time when those who are serious about working in Compliance, and are in it for the long term, need to get to grips with how their activities, and those of their firm, fit into the wider legislative and regulatory universe within which they operate. But first, let's qualify that comment! If you are happy to live your life in a Compliance bunker, coming to work each day to simply read rules and bide your time until you can leave again in the evening, then, I admit, you don't really need to know very much about how your firm is placed in the wider regulatory environment. But if you were that sort of person, then you probably would not be reading this text.

On the other hand, if you want to be in a position to lead your firm successfully through the complexities of the Compliance universe, then it really is vital to understand how your firm is placed. So, once you have determined the high level scope of your responsibilities in the Compliance Charter (see Chapter 3) you will then need to tackle the more detailed aspects of your environment. To do so successfully you will need to take on board a vast amount of information that should form the building blocks of the Compliance regime that you implement in your firm, and should cover the following broad areas:

• Operating entities within your group.
• Business units and support departments within each operating entity.
• External service providers.
• The regulatory environment in which ...