Experts Examine Critical Industry Trends and Challenges at RegEd Compliance Alliance 2015

Conflicts of Interest, FINRA Supervision and NARAB II Among Topics of Greatest Concern for Attendees


Raleigh, NC, May 14, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Financial services compliance, licensing, registration and operations professionals gathered at the fourth annual RegEd Compliance Alliance (RCA) conference to share best practices, build critical knowledge across a range of topics, and engage with regulators and industry experts. The event, held May 4-6 in Raleigh, NC, was  hosted by RegEd, a leading provider of compliance technology solutions, and attended by more than 150 representatives from financial services firms, consultancies, law firms and industry providers. Comprising more than 20 substantive sessions, the conference focused on issues and topics of critical concern for the attendees, including:

  • Creating a Comprehensive Conflicts of Interest Program: Efficiently managing conflicts of interests requires compliance professionals to understand and implement best practices for tracking, monitoring and disclosing conflicts of interest including outside business activities, gifts and entertainment and political contributions. Firms must also establish rigorous internal controls for resolution of conflicts and risk mitigation.
  • Implementing New FINRA Supervision Rules: With the passage of FINRA Rules 3110, 3120, 3130 firms are making changes to their supervisory requirements. Successful firms have identified best practices and implemented technology to ensure compliance with annual reporting obligations, branch visit requirements, appropriate correspondence review and customer complaint capture.
  • Impact of NARAB II on Industry: Recently passed H.R. 26 includes a provision that creates a permanent National Association of Registered Agents and Brokers (NARAB II). NARAB II promises to streamline licensing for producers doing business in multiple states while preserving the rights of states to supervise and discipline agents and brokers. However, the potential harmonization of non-resident licensing may result in more complexity, at least initially. 
  • Regulator Use of Data and Analytics: Increasingly, regulators are mining the data they collect to identify potential risk and precisely target exams. An overview of FINRA data use and risk-based examinations finds a move away from broad data requests toward an increasingly targeted approach based on identified firm and individual risk, as well as the scale and scope of firm operations.

Commenting on RCA 2015, Debra Freitag, RegEd Chief Strategy Officer and RCA Executive Sponsor, said, "We chose 'Predict. Persuade. Perform.' as the RCA 2015 theme because it embodies the real challenge that confronts our clients in 2015: they must be able to predict and take timely action on regulatory changes; predict potential risk across their registered population; persuade key stakeholders to formulate the firm's policies and procedures in a precise manner and employ rigorous measures of their effectiveness; and install efficient processes and technology that enable them to shift from a reactive mode to being able to perform consistently and proactively." Freitag continued, "By bringing our clients together for this unique opportunity, we were able to foster dialogue on the best practices and tools needed to more effectively tackle these everyday challenges."

During the conference, RegEd announced the completion of multiple implementations of RegEd SCORE™, which installs a compliance control center to enable firms to identify and calculate compliance and sales practice risk across their registered population. RegEd also announced the expansion of its CODE™ insurance company compliance solution, adding Incident Management to the existing CODE suite of modules, which include Regulatory Change Management, Policies and Procedures Management, Market Conduct Exam Management and Consumer Complaints Management.
 

About RegEd
RegEd is a leading provider of compliance technology solutions with relationships with more than 400 enterprise clients, including 80% of the top 25 broker-dealers and top 25 insurance companies. Established in 1994 by former regulators, the company is a recognized industry authority and has created the standard of excellence for rule-based and content-driven compliance automation for insurance companies, investment advisors and broker-dealers.  RegEd solutions drive new levels of operational efficiency and enable firms to cost-effectively comply with regulations and mitigate risk.  For more information, please visit www.reged.com



            

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