Ensuring compliance with regulations and reporting requirements is important for businesses and organizations. Failure to adhere to these standards can lead to severe penalties, reputational damage, and legal repercussions. Therefore, it is crucial to explore and implement the best practices for monitoring and maintaining compliance in financial operations.
If you’re looking for some guidance, below, 12 Forbes Business Development Council members dive into the most effective approaches and tools that organizations can utilize to keep a close eye on regulatory compliance and meet their reporting obligations with confidence and accuracy.
1. Automate Compliance
Automate it! Technology has advanced so that most regulatory requirements can be embedded into workflows automatically. There is too much reliance on individual employees to voluntarily meet requirements, and both adherence to regulations and reporting suffer. It’s a people, process and technology issue, so there is no simple fix, but tech can go a long way to improving processes and helping people. – Jean-Marc Chanoine, Templafy
2. Form Specialized Task Forces
You must have a dedicated and experienced legal or compliance team that owns the function at your disposal and with the foresight to track potential changes preemptively. In tandem with this, it’s imperative to form specialized task forces on important and relevant topics as they arise. The task force should consist of various stakeholders that are impacted by the regulation or proposed regulation. – Scotty Elliott, AmeriLife’s
3. Put A Framework In Place
To ensure compliance, establish a robust framework aligned with best practices, stay updated on regulations, conduct regular audits, leverage technology, foster a compliance culture, engage with regulators and seek external expertise. Implementing these strategies helps businesses navigate regulations, mitigate risk and build stakeholder trust. – Omar Elgammal, Paymob
4. Stress The Importance Of Documentation
Maintaining financial documentation is crucial for demonstrating compliance with financial regulations. By emphasizing the importance of having well-organized records, organizations can effectively communicate the fundamental principles of accuracy, transparency and accountability. Also, highlighting the accessibility of these documents contributes to streamlining the overall compliance process. – Dylan Nguyen, FG Entertainment Network
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5. Employ A Dedicated Compliance Professional
The best practice is to ensure you have an experienced compliance professional with a credible track record on your team. The guidance that will be provided is invaluable. – Folasade Femi-Lawal, FirstBank of Nigeria Ltd
6. Make Changes As Necessary
Financial non-compliance can put every single aspect of your business in jeopardy, the foremost thing is to understand its criticality. Once that’s established within the leadership group, the next step is to put a regular cadence around every six months or every other quarter. A change roster, if needed, is updated based on RACI (responsible, accountable, consulted, informed) or another matrix that works for you. – Mustansir Paliwala, EQUANS
7. Outsource It
In many businesses, you may have an internal team that does this but, for many, outsourcing things like this to a top-level, knowledgeable partner company is key. By ensuring that the partner you work with is consistently looking at all regulatory updates and communicating to the entire team what they need to know. – Richard Lindhorn, VivoAquatics Inc.
8. Use A Work Management Platform
Ensure compliance by employing a collaborative work management platform alongside a robust internal control system. The platform can automate, track and report compliance tasks while fostering transparent communication. Regular training and audits will strengthen compliance. This mitigates risks and supports accurate, timely reporting. The collaborative work management platform ensures needed visibility and collaboration. – Michael Fritsch, UST Xpanxion
9. Communicate Consistently
Make sure that policies and procedures are communicated well and consistently implemented in the company. There should be no room for ambiguity or lack of knowledge. Keep everyone updated with any changes in regulatory laws, reinforce financial and reporting compliance through training and regularly conduct compliance audits. If needed, hire a specialist to minimize risks and non-compliance. – Bryce Welker, Crush The BAR Exam
10. Be Proactive
To remain compliant with financial regulations, it is essential to adopt a proactive approach. This includes staying informed, developing policies, assessing risks, training staff, maintaining accurate records, performing audits, implementing controls, seeking expertise, promoting transparency and monitoring updates in regulatory requirements. – Lomit Patel, Tynker
11. Start Compliance With A Legal Professional
If beginning from scratch, start with a simple compliance policy document to be maintained by someone with a legal background. This will initiate a compliant environment. Have this policy revised and updated both from company leaders and external leaders from; Chambers of Commerce, tax authorities or any parties you see having valuable input. Then cleanse your policy document and re-classify it by training and updating your team and repeating. – Ahmed Ammar, LABS – Logical Applications for Business Solutions
12. Implement A Compliance Program
The best way to ensure compliance with financial regulations is to implement a robust compliance program. This includes regularly updated training for employees, periodic internal audits and employing automated compliance software. These practices help detect and manage risks and adhere to reporting requirements effectively and efficiently. – Tomer Warschauer Nuni, Pink Moon Studio Ltd
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