New business to offer online compliance help

A new compliance business is offering advisers the ability to have their AML obligations taken care of, remotely.

Thursday, March 31st 2016, 6:00AM

by Susan Edmunds

Gavin Austin

Remote Compliance is a new venture developed by Gavin Austin and Allan Lloyd.

The pair said many businesses that are reporting entities under AML/CFT rules have good risk assessments and programmes in place but are lacking controls.

“It is very easy to note what and how things should be done, however some mechanism needs to be in place to ensure that the 'what' and 'how' is being adhered to.”

Austin said the service would be offered via a web portal.

The Remote Compliance team would run meetings online and provide simple tools to help businesses comply, he said.

Remote Compliance would also allow businesses to outsource things such as the need to keep up with regulators' updates.

“There are various things being published they should be keeping abreast of and if they affect their businesses, they need to adjust their systems," Austin said. "We’re saying 'don’t worry about reading that stuff, we’ll do it for you'. And it keeps them completely compliant with that section of the Act. It’s all online as opposed to them having to read stuff that comes from various places.”

Austin said it would cost $200 a year to hand over that research responsibility and receive a report every three months on whether a business needed to update its systems.

Remote Compliance would also offer firms the ability to access international databases to do politically exposed person (PEP) checks for $50 a year plus a $10 fee per check. He said that would work out cheaper than going direct for most financial adviser firms.

Austin said he was already recommending the service to some of his clients but a formal launch would not happen until the website was ready.

He said, while he had predominantly dealt with the financial adviser market in the past, there was scope for many other businesses to use the service, including other financial service providers.

If the Financial Advisers Act review caused more advisers to pick up AML obligations, Remote Compliance would have the capacity to cater for them, he said.

AML audits cost $800, a quality assurance check every three to four years would cost $900 and training modules are $400 each, for up to 10 staff.

Austin said Remote Compliance could also help AFAs with other regulatory obligations, such as updating adviser business statements.

Tags: AML compliance