MFSA Carries Out a Thematic Review on compliance with the requirements on Governance, Compliance and Risk Management

The MFSA recently published a circular addressed to the compliance officers of investment services license holders with consolidated feedback from the Securities and Markets Supervision Unit. The Unit conducted a thematic review on Governance, Compliance and Risk Management through focused visits at the offices of a number of investment services licence holders during 2013 and 2014. A wide range of licence holders varying in size, type and business model were chosen in order to achieve a representative picture of the sector in its entirety.

The reviews were constructed in such a manner as to identify the degree to which the selected licence holders have procedures in place for proper governance, compliance and risk management, and how far these procedures are actually complied with and applied in practice.

In publishing the circular, the MFSA’s objective is to update the industry on the typical findings of these reviews in order to encourage licence holders to take corrective measures and escape the typical errors being made with respect to lack of fulfilment of regulatory and compliance standards. The MFSA aim to encourage licence holders to take corrective action and avoid the common pitfalls in relation to lack of observance of regulatory and compliance standards by informing the industry about the common findings of these focused reviews.

A copy of the letter is available from the MFSA website.

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