On November 23, 2017, the Financial Conduct Authority published a note on the compliance function in wholesale banks. The note sets out the key themes and issues arising from responses to an FCA questionnaire which was sent to 22 firms as well as the FCA's own observations. The questionnaire was sent to large global banks operating across several business lines, medium-sized firms focusing on specific areas or geographies and smaller UK firms, in order that the FCA could gain insight into how the function has changed over the past few years. The key themes are that compliance functions need to evolve in response to changes impacting the industry and that more strategic thinking is needed. The FCA has not asked individual firms to take any steps in response to the note. However, the FCA indicates that all firms and heads of compliance should use the note to develop their compliance function.
The FCA's note is available at: https://fca.org.uk/publication/research/the-compliance-function-in-wholesale-banks.pdf.
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