We are also appointed by regulators to act as a skilled person to support the regulators’ own investigations into individuals and regulated firms (such as an s166 review for the FCA). This is typically where an enforcement action is underway. Often, these involve detailed forensic analysis of large volumes of information where we lend our technical subject matter expertise into specific regulatory areas.
An important aspect of our work where we are appointed by a regulator due to our specialist technical knowledge, is to ensure there is transfer of our skill and competencies to the other parties in the review. The intention is to both identify and resolve any issues that may exist but also to prevent re-occurrence through training and up-skilling.
Regulator Commissioned Review
Where we are not appointed as the skilled person, we can provide assistance to firms both in advance of a regulator commissioned review and once one has been completed as we can help firms:
- To prepare for a skilled person review through a health-check or diagnostic review
- To support efforts to achieve an efficient and effective review during the process
- With remediation where the skilled person has made recommendations, we can assist in the implementation of the remedial work
Skilled person reviews place material demands on a firm’s resources, at all levels, at each of these stages. Critically, this does not end once the review is complete as it is frequently the failure to conclude the post-review remediation to the satisfaction of the regulator that leads to follow-on reviews and potentially sanctions. Our involvement shares this burden, allows firms to conclude the review and the resultant remediation and focus on getting on with their business.
