Handling Investigations of Significant Regulatory Issues for Financial Services

Introduction

The investigation of significant regulatory issues, either by the FCA or a firm, can have an enormous effect on firms.

The investigation can be expensive, time consuming, resource intensive and lead to sanctions and negative publicity for individuals and firms.

When a potentially significant regulatory issue is identified, it is crucial that firms respond in a careful, considered and strategic manner.

Firms should react in a way that is consistent with their regulatory obligations but, within that, also seeks to protect their interests.

This new full-day course will provide practical advice and guidance for firms about how they should deal with the issues that might arise once a potentially significant regulatory issue has been identified.

It considers how the firm should communicate the FCA, from both a regulatory obligation and strategic perspective.

It also considers in detail how firms may go about conducting an internal investigation into the issue and the key issues that often arise for both the firm and the individuals involved.

The course is suitable for legal counsel, compliance staff and all those with responsibility and oversight for running internal investigations and liaising with the FCA on identified regulatory issues.

What You Will Learn

This course will cover the following:

• Identification of a potentially significant regulatory issue and initial steps:
• Identification of a potentially serious regulatory issue (potential sources of identification either by the FCA or the firm)
• Communicating with the FCA about the issue (notification obligations and practicalities, initial fact finding, the importance of initial communications with the FCA and how to position them)
• Protection, retention and creation of relevant document once a potentially significant regulatory issue has been identified (points to consider and practical steps to take)
• Factors for a firm to consider when deciding how to manage and govern its response to an emerging regulatory issue:
• Potential divergence of interest between a firm and individuals (obligations of senior management and directors)
• Governance arrangements for managing a response to an emerging regulatory issue (governance structure, conflicts of interest that may arise and how to deal with them, practicalities of organising and running an investigation)
• Internal investigations into a regulatory issue:
• The firm’s perspective (scoping an internal investigation, the FCA’s attitude and approach to internal investigations, disclosure and use of information obtained as part of an internal investigation)
• An individual’s perspective (extent of duty to participate, factors to be taken into account when deciding whether to participate)
• Potential obstacles to effective participation for an individual (access to documents, requests to provide documents, access to independent legal advice)
• Meeting the costs of independent legal advice (indemnities and D&O insurance)