Mutual Fund Compliance: Today’s hot issues are only the tip of the iceberg

While a lot of noise has been made recently regarding mutual fund sales practices, little has been said about the underlying inefficiency of current compliance processes, the solution to which requires flexible technology moving at the speed of regulation.

Within seconds, an entire day's transactions across all organizational units and product lines can be processed and analyzed consistently, against the entire set of rules, to ensure that every angle is covered and nothing slips through the cracks. All identified issues, described in plain language that's easy to understand, are then ranked according to firm-defined criteria, prioritizing the more serious issues by bringing them to the immediate attention of compliance.

Without having to pour through reams of reports or check data in multiple systems, compliance officers can instead focus their time on working the issues to quickly bring them to resolution, before they become serious problems.

Flexible rule changes allow firms to keep pace with regulatory changes.

One problem facing compliance departments today is the inability to modify the systems they use to accommodate continually changing requirements. Often, they must rely on scare IT resources to implement changes, or wait until the next release cycle, causing problematic errors and delays. An even bigger problem is their frequent inability to clearly communicate complex business needs to IT staff.

At the core of Synapse Surveillance is a Workbench tool that easily allows business users to add or modify the system's rules, without programmer involvement. The expert that understands the regulation is the one that puts the rule into the system, without having to translate requirements into code. This "on-the-fly" capability allows firms to better keep pace with regulatory changes.

A common platform for compliance, supervisors and reps to collaborate on issues.

Synapse Surveillance provides a common, Web-based interface that facilitates communication and workflow between the home-office compliance department and reviewers and representatives in the field. As issues are identified and actions taken, a complete audit trail is recorded to facilitate reporting and meet the increasing demands of regulatory audits.

Fix the cause, not the symptom.

A "quick fix" solution to an existing system might solve today's breakpoint or market timing problems (and temporarily appease the regulators), but does nothing to address the underlying inefficiencies that led these issues to become problems in the first place. Today's broker/dealers must focus their attention on the root of the problem: the compliance process itself. Choosing the right technology is a key step in achieving the level of efficiency that is necessary to ensure protection against tomorrow's threats as well as today's.

SunGard Online Investment Systems
4 Triad Center, Suite 700
Salt Lake City, UT 84180

Contact: Brian Hendricks,
Sales Executive - Synapse
801-955-3199
[email protected]
www.online.sungard.com

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