Financial Services Compliance and Regulation

Asia Pacific Compliance Services

Our Asia Pacific team remains closely connected to regulators, industry stakeholders and key associations, enabling us to provide our clients with up-to-date insights despite fast-moving and ever-evolving regulatory landscapes and industry trends.

With a multi-jurisdictional practice across offices in Asia Pacific, the Asia Pacific Financial Services Compliance and Regulation team delivers top-quality, customized advisory support, which is specific to our clients’ regulatory requirements. Kroll’s team of experts hail from a variety of professional disciplines, including financial institutions, regulators, government authorities and professional services firms—among other backgrounds. Our Asia Pacific team remains closely connected to regulators and industry associations, enabling us to provide our clients with up-to-date insights despite fast-moving and ever-evolving regulatory landscapes and industry trends. 

Licensing and Registration Services

We work closely with our clients to provide bespoke regulatory compliance advisory support with regards to setting up licensed or registered entities. 

Compliance Advisory Services

We provide our clients with a customized regulatory compliance solution commensurate with their business. 

Internal Audit, Mock Audits, and Due Diligence Assistance

In line with independent internal audit requirements, we assist clients to assess and review their compliance framework and internal controls across multiple regions.

Regulatory Examination and Inspection Support

Our team has in-depth and extensive expertise in regulatory examinations and inspections across multiple regulatory regimes, including the SFC, MAS, SEC, CFTC and NFA.

Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Counter–Financing of Terrorism (CFT) Framework Reviews

Our team of experts conduct independent AML/CFT reviews and gap analyses to assess our clients’ existing frameworks and implementation practices to identify areas for improvement and alignment with applicable regulatory requirements.

APAC Regulation

Licensing and Registration Services

  • We work closely with our clients to provide bespoke regulatory compliance advisory support with regards to setting up licensed or registered entities. This includes working with clients to review and advise on their license applications, as well as any subsequent licenses and filings.
  • Once licensed, we support clients in complying with their regulatory obligations by leading the development of their compliance frameworks, including the design and implementation of policies and procedures. 
  • Many of our clients operate global businesses and need to contend with multi-jurisdictional sets of regulatory frameworks. For these clients, we provide customized advice tailored to their specific jurisdictional needs. 
  • Our team provides licensing and registration expertise across many jurisdictions, including the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)/National Futures Association (NFA).

Compliance Advisory Services

Bespoke Regulatory Compliance Solution: We provide our clients with a customized regulatory compliance solution commensurate with their business. This applies whether a client is regulated and must comply with specific and challenging regulatory obligations or if a client decides to remain unregulated and seeks assistance to meet global best practice industry standards instead.

  • Our retainer services cover a broad range of our clients’ compliance needs, including:

– Advising on and assisting with financial and regulatory filings/reports

– Preparing our clients for regulatory change—for example, through policy updates or thematic trainings, advising senior management on implications to their business operations, etc.

– Annual or ad hoc training sessions to ensure our clients and their employees are adhering to license requirements and meeting global best practices.

Compliance Training: We advise and guide clients with respect to ongoing requirements (and best practices) across continuing professional training. We lead and host routine and specific customized compliance trainings throughout the year.

Chaperoning Services: For those clients using the services of paid expert network firms or similar, we offer chaperoning services to ensure investment teams are complying with the firm’s internal controls.

Dedicated Compliance Resource: From time to time, clients may require dedicated, in-office compliance resources, for which we offer secondee placements across buy-side and sell-side (and various regulated firms in between).

In addition to the services outlined, we offer bespoke engagements, tailored to address local regulatory requirements for regulatory matters covering Hong Kong, Singapore and U.S. regulatory frameworks, per below.

For our Hong Kong-licensed clients, we provide continuous advisory support to ensure they are meeting their local regulatory obligations, including assistance with the following: 

  • Financial Resources Returns
  • Annual return filings
  • Business Risk Management Questionnaire
  • Thematic surveys
  • Notifications pursuant to the SFC Notification Rule
  • Changes or additions to licensed representatives and/or responsible officers
  • Ensuring compliance with the manager-in-charge regime
  • Application to changes in clients’ substantial shareholder(s)

We cover the above and many other regulatory aspects of operating a licensed entity.

Internal Audits, Mock Audits and Due Diligence Assistance

  • In line with independent internal audit requirements, we assist clients to assess and review their compliance framework and internal controls across multiple regions.
  • These assessments (internal audits and mock reviews) allow us to prepare clients for regulatory examinations/inspections through engagement with senior management, conducting sample testing, and identifying areas for improvement to devise commercially focused compliance solutions.
  • Our team applies their extensive experience working with our clients’ senior management team to review and respond to operational due diligence requests from external stakeholders.
  • In line with the increasing regulatory focus on risks arising from outsourcing arrangements and the use of third-party service providers, we help clients develop frameworks to manage these risks, including third-party service provider due diligence through questionnaires, assessments and interviews.
  • For our U.S. Registered Investment Adviser (RIA) clients, we conduct Rule 206(4)(7) SEC Annual Reviews, whether independently from or working alongside the compliance function, to ensure that the firm’s policies, procedures and internal controls meet SEC obligations.

Regulatory Examination and Inspection Support

  • Our team has in-depth and extensive expertise in regulatory examinations and inspections across multiple regulatory regimes, including the SFC, MAS, SEC, CFTC and NFA.
  • With our valuable insights into regulatory examinations and experience in assisting clients through such reviews, we guide our clients in navigating the regulatory inspection process. We work alongside our clients’ internal compliance function to assist in several areas, including:

– Preparing the client with mock interviews and/or training sessions

– Reviewing documents and policies required to be provided in the course of inspections

– Advising on the client’s opening presentation to the regulator(s), a key component to an SFC inspection

– Advising on draft responses prior to submission and pre-empting potential requisitions

– Conducting sample testing prior to sending to the regulator to ensure consistency and help spot any irregularities

– To the extent there are areas of remediation, our team will work with our clients to help develop and advise on a remediation plan, as well as actionable next steps.

AML and CFT Framework Reviews

  • AML/CFT Reviews: Our team of experts conduct independent AML/CFT reviews and gap analyses to assess our clients’ existing frameworks and implementation practices to identify areas for improvement and alignment with applicable regulatory requirements. 
  • Customer Due Diligence (CDD) and Onboarding Process: We assist our clients to develop CDD processes and review client onboarding files against applicable AML standards. Where clients engage third-party providers to assist with the CDD and screening processes, our team conducts due diligence on such providers to assess whether their AML practices meet the client’s regulatory obligations.
  • AML/CFT Risk Assessments: We assist our clients to design and implement a customized matrix in line with Enterprise-Wide Risk Assessments for MAS-regulated firms, and AML Institutional Risk Assessments for SFC-licensed firms. 
  • Training: We provide tailored AML/CFT training in line with regulatory standards and the clients’ internal processes. 
  • We advise on and assist with MAS and SFC AML/CFT regulatory requirements to ensure clients’ frameworks comply with these standards, including in the following areas:

– Know-your-client, CDD and customer onboarding

– AML/CFT risk assessment and mitigating controls

– Politically exposed persons and sanctions screening requirements

– Suspicious transactions and activity reporting

– Employee screening requirements

– Recordkeeping and retention requirements

Explore Insights

Stay Ahead with Kroll

Financial Services Compliance and Regulation

In the ever-evolving financial services landscape, Kroll's award-winning team offers comprehensive regulatory and compliance services, guiding clients through registration, licensing, and compliance support to minimize risks and enhance efficiency globally.

Learn More
img

Let's solve for the future

We will use this information to respond to your inquiry and process your data in accordance with our privacy policy.