Compliance: More Important than Ever in 2013

Great article in FundFire assessing the state of compliance and employment opportunities for those with compliance experience. Among the key points made are that compliance is more important than ever and the fact that, with Dodd-Frank, many of the rules have yet to be written, let alone implemented, for asset management firms. The author also succinctly points out the root of the trend towards requiring additional compliance capabilities starting with the financial crisis and also the Madoff scandal being the pivotal event that shook the entire industry and ushered in a new era of compliance with demands for complete transparency from institutional investors.

The article also points out the recent trend of compliance being maintained in-house rather than outsourced. Especially key for a new breed of compliance officers to manage effectively will be the role of technology. Without a centralized technology platform, demonstrating transparency of the investment process is next to impossible. Managing from multiple systems, or even worse, from spreadsheets points to the need for technology platforms that take an expansive view of the investment process so as to create an audit trail of all events in the investment process to demonstrate true transparency.