Compliance Monitoring Plan
Compliance monitoring helps you understand the risks in your business. Done well, it can help you pinpoint weaknesses in controls and provide comfort that you’re meeting your regulatory obligations. But all too often it fails to deliver.
As leading compliance consultants we get invited to assist many firms that have failed to reach the minimum standards of FCA regulation. Our remedial work often shows that the compliance monitoring plan has not been followed or in fact has not been done at all.
Is your compliance monitoring up to scratch?
The answer is probably ‘no’ if you’re not sure of the answer to these questions:
- Is compliance–monitoring considered important in your firm?
- Is it an integral part of your planning and resourcing?
- Is it aligned to your risks?
- Are the right people conducting your compliance monitoring?
- Do you know who your compliance monitoring stakeholders are and understand their needs?
- How do you currently evidence the “Reasonable Steps” needed for SMCR?
- Conduct Risk Assessment (Get Your Checklist Here)

We can help
Our clients ask us to help with every area of compliance monitoring. We can review your existing framework, work with you to build an effective monitoring plan from scratch, or undertake provide independent challenge and assurance.
Putting together a bespoke compliance monitoring framework
When we look at a compliance monitoring framework we get into the detail. We look at each sourcebook of the FCA Handbook, chapter by chapter, against your regulatory permission to identify all applicable rules. For each rule we have a high-level test and, where appropriate, a compliance ‘deep dive’ test. We can then work with you to develop a bespoke compliance monitoring programme (CMP) which is relevant and proportionate to your business.
Creating a compliance monitoring plan
If you’re newly authorised, you will have submitted a template CMP but that is only the start. We can help you create and digitise your first CMP – tailored specifically to your activities. This provides reminders for documents set to require review, and a countdown to when they need republishing, a regular depositary to show completed CMP activities, with an auditor “View Only Access” and as many users as you need.
If your plan is no longer fit for purpose we can put together a new one!
Reviewing your compliance monitoring programme
We can assess whether your current programme is up to scratch. We can look at the whole framework and suggest improvements, for example how you test compliance against particular rules. Or we can review your control framework against particular areas, for example senior management arrangements, or best execution. With the SMCR coming into the picture, it is more important than ever to make sure you understand, identify and mitigate your risks.
Our ongoing service
The responsibility for compliance monitoring is yours – but we can make it easier. Once we’ve designed a compliance.monitoring programme for you we can carry out regular checks and flag any issues, giving you comfort you’ve got it covered. We follow these five steps.
- Assessment – Getting to understand the scope of what you do and your key risk areas.
- Planning – Designing a tailored annual compliance monitoring schedule, taking a risk-based approach.
- Testing – Carrying out periodic compliance monitoring visits prioritising high risk areas – however often you need.
- Reporting – Rating your compliance with each area of your framework and setting out gaps which need attention
- Remediating – Advising you on how to reduce your risk and working with you fix problems.
Why Not Get Your Conduct Risk Stress Check-list
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You May Also Be Interested In
Compliance Monitoring Plan Template https://www.complianceconsultant.org/fca-compliance-monitoring-plan-template/
FCA Authorisations Requirements – Compliance Monitoring Plan https://www.complianceconsultant.org/fca-authorisations-requirements-compliance-monitoring-plan/