Advanced Compliance Leadership in Financial Services - Accountability, Governance & Regulatory Judgement

Introduction

Effective leadership in financial services requires senior managers to exercise sound judgement, challenge the information presented to them and demonstrate that their areas of responsibility are controlled effectively.

How do you know whether your governance arrangements work in practice? What should you challenge when the board receives assurances that compliance risks are under control? How can you demonstrate reasonable steps when responsibilities are delegated, resources are stretched or difficult commercial decisions arise?

Presented by Robert Bell, this advanced modular webinar series explores the practical compliance challenges facing Senior Management Function (SMF) holders, executive directors, non-executive directors and experienced compliance and risk leaders.

Across six focused modules, the series examines how to strengthen accountability, scrutinise performance, influence culture and make defensible decisions. Practical leadership scenarios will help you apply the learning to your own responsibilities.

This series assumes an existing understanding of FCA regulation and the Senior Managers & Certification Regime.

What You Will Learn

This modular webinar series will cover the following:

Module 1: Senior Management Accountability - Demonstrating Reasonable Steps

• Translating your Statement of Responsibilities into practical oversight arrangements, including shared responsibilities and potential gaps
• Delegating effectively: assessing competence, capacity and authority and retaining appropriate oversight
• Recognising when reliance on assurances is insufficient and further investigation or intervention is needed
• Maintaining evidence of challenge, decisions, escalation and follow-through

Module 2: Board-Level Governance - Providing Effective Challenge

• Allocating decisions between the board, committees and executive management, with clear escalation routes
• Challenging strategy, growth plans and risk appetite from a regulatory and customer perspective
• Recognising weak board reporting, unsupported assurances and management information that conceals emerging risks
• Recording meaningful challenge, resolving disagreement and holding management accountable for action

Module 3: Conduct Risk & Culture - Leading the Behaviours You Expect

• Identifying how leadership behaviour, incentives and commercial pressure influence conduct
• Assessing culture through staff feedback, customer outcomes, complaints and other warning signs
• Responding to non-financial misconduct and concerns involving high-performing or senior individuals
• Creating an environment in which staff raise concerns and leaders respond consistently

Module 4: Compliance Oversight - Knowing Whether Controls Work

• Evaluating the authority, independence, competence and resources of compliance and risk functions
• Challenging whether monitoring and assurance address the firm’s most significant risks
• Using Consumer Duty outcomes reporting to identify harm hidden by positive headline results
• Testing whether remediation addresses root causes and delivers sustained improvement

Module 5: Operational Resilience & Third Parties - Leading Through Disruption

• Distinguishing applicable operational resilience requirements from wider business continuity and governance responsibilities
• Challenging assumptions about critical services, dependencies, outsourcing and concentration risk
• Assessing whether scenario testing demonstrates a credible ability to respond to disruption
• Directing incident response: decision-making authority, customer protection, communications and recovery priorities

Module 6: Difficult Decisions & Regulatory Scrutiny - Exercising Sound Judgement

• Balancing commercial objectives, customer outcomes and regulatory obligations when information is incomplete
• Deciding when to pause an initiative, strengthen controls, commission independent assurance or escalate concerns
• Responding to significant failings: assessing their extent, considering regulatory notification and overseeing remediation
• Documenting options, evidence and rationale so decisions can withstand subsequent board or regulatory scrutiny