GRC Managed Services

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  1. Our Solutions
  2. GRC Managed Services

Now more than ever, compliance and risk teams are challenged to increase the effectiveness of their compliance programs, manage with fewer internal resources, ensure high-quality results, reduce turnaround times, and lower costs.

We provide our clients with solutions to these challenges while delivering value and improved outcomes. Our dedicated team of compliance and risk professionals has a proven record of providing high-quality results in a timely manner for over 1,000 firms globally.

Our solutions

Our innovative approach integrates technology with managed services to enhance the delivery and effectiveness of our solutions, helping our clients achieve greater economies of scale across their firm.

Staff Augmentation & Secondments

Our secondment and staffing solutions are completely customizable for all levels of seniority to meet short or long-term needs.

We provide seamless temporary compliance team additions without the HR onboarding process, training requirements, and employee-related benefit costs.

Compliance Outsourcing and Support

Outsourcing higher volume, process-oriented tasks to a strategic partner allows firms to reduce workload while ensuring proper implementation of procedures. Our support can include: electronic communications surveillance, marketing and financial promotion reviews, code of ethics reviews, expert network chaperoning, regulatory reporting, and more.

Additional Support Solutions

Strong compliance and risk management programs demand appropriate resources. Our team has the regulatory and practical experience to assist firms with their ongoing responsibilities. Projects can include: scalable compliance testing and remediation projects, vendor and M&A risk reviews, prudential reporting and trade and transaction reporting services.

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Common outsourced solutions

We can can help take manual and time-consuming tasks off your plate, including:

Marketing and Advertising Reviews

Outsourcing marketing and advertising review allows your firm to significantly reduce the amount of time and resources devoted to the marketing and advertising review process.

Our skilled compliance professionals can step in during periods of high volume or assist your firm with enhancing collateral review workflows and protocols. We will help your firm identify potential business and compliance risks that could lead to problems with your key stakeholders: regulators, clients, and prospective clients.

Regulatory Filings (Form ADV, Form PF, Form 13F, 13G, 13H, AIFMD, CPO-PQR, etc.)

Investment advisers and broker-dealers must meet various regulatory filings requirements or else face potential monetary penalties and reputational damage. However, the regulatory filings process can be time-consuming and error-prone when done manually in-house.

We combine technology with managed services to provide investment advisers and broker-dealers with a cost-effective, full-service offering designed to help streamline complex reporting requirements, improve data accuracy, and reduce the operational costs related to regulatory filings.

Our regulatory filings specialists can help your firm draft, review, and file applicable filings on your firm’s behalf. We use ACA’s proprietary regulatory reporting platform for most filings to reduce risk and increase operational efficiencies

Expert Network Consultation Chaperoning

Our team is available to listen to consultations, document observed inconsistencies with policies and procedures, and provide a report of any findings after the meeting.

A member of our team will join expert network consultations in listen-only mode, on an announced or unannounced basis. We will document the consultation, note inconsistencies, and identify potential compliance risks and violations. 

We will provide a written summary report of the consultation in which we highlight aspects that warrant further review. Additionally, we can be available to discuss our findings if necessary.

Electronic Communications and Online Presence Reviews

Electronic Communications

An effective email review program is critical for preventing, among other things, misuse of material non-public information by an adviser or an adviser’s employees. Our team specializes in conducting thorough reviews of electronic communications to help firms meet their regulatory obligations in this area.

Online Presence and Social Media

Many firms are concerned with how their employees use social media or other websites for business purposes, and with the general unknown of what information about the firm or its business dealings is being posted online. Despite that concern, compliance officers may not have the resources necessary to perform periodic, comprehensive reviews of their employees’ online activity. While some firms are able to monitor employee activity on widely known, popular social media sites, they may not be aware of activity on lesser-known websites and social media forums, such as those that are geared toward traders or that focus on investment ideas.

Our team will assist your firm’s compliance department with identifying online activity that could pose compliance or reputational issues for your firm. This service also can assist your firm with addressing regulatory guidance on the use of social media by investment advisers and their employees.

Trade Surveillance

Regulators globally are using cutting-edge technologies to identify potential insider trading, market abuse, and other misconduct, resulting in record-breaking fines and enforcement. Our trade surveillance solutions are designed to help your firm effectively, diligently, and proactively manage its firm-wide and employee trading risk in a way that meets regulatory expectations and industry best practices.

We offer a range of trade surveillance solutions designed to meet your firm’s business needs, including:

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Anti-Money Laundering - Know Your Customer and Customer Identification Program Support

Firms that aim to mitigate their regulatory risks, keep pace with industry best practices, and satisfy inquiries from prospective investors increasingly need support to evolve and maintain their anti-money laundering (AML) programs.

Compliance teams globally are tasked with meeting requirements under various Know Your Customer (KYC) and Customer Identification Program (CIP) regulations, or they can face significant fines. In 2019 alone, there were over $8B AML compliance fines globally, and penalties have continued to trend upward since 2015.

Our AML KYC/CIP Solution is designed to assist your firm in developing and implementing effective AML practices that meet industry best practices and comply with applicable laws and regulations in the U.S., Europe, and Cayman Islands. Our solution combines ComplianceAlpha® regulatory technology with managed services to help your firm meet its data screening, ongoing monitoring, remediation, and reporting needs.

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Case Studies

Staffing support and secondments

The staffing needs for financial services firms are constantly evolving. The ever-changing regulatory landscape combined with the increasing adoption of regulatory technology can make finding and retaining qualified staff with the required proficiencies a challenge for HR departments and recruiters. However, having the proper staffing and supporting resources in place is crucial to maintaining a strong compliance program. Teams that are over-burdened and stretched too thin are more likely to experience burn out and make mistakes.

We can help. Learn more about our staffing and support services.

Download our case studies

Why use managed services?

Do more with less
  • Streamline processes and reduce costs while improving efficiency
  • Strategically shift cumbersome tasks to optimize team focus on level-appropriate work
  • Increase operational agility to handle unexpected and cyclical staffing needs
Reduce variable cost and operational risk
  • Eliminate key person risk
  • Benefit from the deep experience of 100+ skilled ACA analysts and consultants
  • Stabilize budget allocations
Maintain quality and best practices
  • Keep pace with regulatory change and industry best practices
  • Access peer benchmarking and insights from 3,500 clients worldwide
  • Benefit from process and testing recommendations and enhancements
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Our leadership team

Kimberly Daly

Kimberly Daly

Partner

Kimberly Daly is a Partner leading ACA’s Managed Services division.

Geoff Hecht

Geoff Hecht

Partner

Geoffrey A. Hecht, CIPM, is a Partner in ACA's Managed Services division.

Adam Palmer

Adam Palmer

Partner, European Regulatory Compliance

Adam Palmer is a London based partner, and head of our European Regulatory Compliance practice.

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Featured insights

Navigating Evolving Risks on the Regulatory Horizon

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News

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ComplianceAlpha 2021 Q2 introduces a suite of new features and sophisticated technology enhancements designed to help firms globally build more comprehensive and scalable GRC programs in line with the expectations of regulators, boards, management, clients, and investors.

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Russell Invesments has selected ACA's ComplianceAlpha® to help modernize and streamline their compliance program.

We Are Now ACA Group

This week, ACA Compliance Group made the move to ACA Group, better known to our clients and industry partners as ACA.

Upcoming events

Money Laundering Reporting Officer: The Role and Responsibilities - 12 May 2021

The role of the Money Laundering Reporting Officer (MLRO) is a mandatory position in all firms in the Financial Services Industry. This reflects the statutory objective that the Regulator(s) have for ensuring that firms behave with “Integrity”, particularly relating to financial crime prevention. The MLRO therefore plays a significant role in assisting Senior management to ensure that systems and controls relating to anti-money laundering (AML) and countering the risk of terrorist financing (CTF) are appropriate and effective. This course provides practical advice and guidance on the responsibilities of the MLRO, what is expected by the Regulators, both of the Senior Management and the MLRO, and how those responsibilities can be achieved. It should be noted that attendance at this course does assume a good knowledge of the UK’s AML/CTF regulations.

Online Training

Compliance Officer: The Role and Responsibilities - 13 May 2021

The role of the Compliance Officer is a mandatory position in all firms in the Financial Services Industry. They play a major role in assisting Senior Management to ensure that appropriate and effective systems and controls are in place to achieve and maintain compliance with the applicable Rules. While the nature of the Compliance Function is likely to differ from one firm to another, this course provides an easy to follow breakdown of what the Regulator expects of a Compliance Officer and explains, in practical terms how the regulatory expectations and those of Senior Management can be achieved.

Online Training

Senior Management Obligations under the SM&CR - 19 May 2021

The ever-increasing focus by the Regulators on the accountability of senior management, particularly when things go wrong, emphasises how important it is for individuals in senior positions to have a clear understanding of what is expected of them. This succinct course is designed to assist Senior Managers to have a full understanding of what they need to do to achieve compliance with the rules under the obligations created by the Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SMCR).

Online Training
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