Which Advisory Consulting Service to Choose
Anyone who has seen the Matrix knows the story. “You take the blue pill, the story ends. You wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.”
So how does this relate to picking a consultant for compliance? There are the consultants that will take your money, hand you the blue pill and give you a package of pre-done AML manuals and/or KYC policy and procedures, RISK assessments and RISK policies (I know… Scary words) and send you on your merry way. Now, some companies with no knowledge or understanding of compliance will think great, I’m set and ready to take on the regulators and banks!
But honestly kittens (to quote the great Dame Edna) it just doesn’t work that way. Taking the red pill will be painful and the rabbit hole can feel never ending, but it will also be educational, enlightening and take you down the path of true compliance.
Many people think compliance is its own little entity within a business. Working alone in its cubicles (where’s my stapler… I’m starting to see I am entertained far too much) reviewing documents, writing documents, spreadsheets and papers everywhere across a desk. Oh yes and those key words you hear as you pass the cubicles, policies… procedures… risk mitigation, risk assessment… risk, risk risk! Aren’t they “those people” that pop their head up when regulators or law enforcement show up at the door? Sound familiar?
But really good compliance, the compliance that the regulators and banks want to see, the compliance you want to put in place, is the compliance that touches all operations within a business and that is integrated into all of your operations. Compliance should be involved in all business decisions from sales and customer service to banking and all the executive decisions that your operation requires. Everyone in a business that utilizes a compliance department is key to the success of any compliance program. This means input and buy in from every department, and a directive from the top down because if the top level of decisions makers do not get it how will the foot soldiers get it?
This means tailor making every compliance policy and procedure and AML manual to incorporate all aspects of your business. This takes time and this takes knowledge and experience. While finding the text book smart consultant that can rattle the regulations off from memory is one way to go; choosing a “good consultant” goes beyond reciting the regulations and uses their skills on how to adapt those regulations, to interpret those regulations and integrate those regulations into your business. Compliance can be difficult and can appear to be black and white, the good consultant will find ways to work with you so that you follow the regulations and still conduct a profitable business.
A good consultant will not simply have the knowledge and understanding of the regulatory requirements and how to implement them into your day-to-day business but will have a much broader experience in business processes as a whole. Compliance and your business as a whole are co-dependent and your policies and procedures cannot be created in a bubble.
When you are looking to hire a consultant, find out if the consultant is going to really understand your business and be a partner to your business. Or will they just sell you what they can, having you skim over the fine print, hand you the blue pill cure all and walk out of your life having you fend for yourselves.
Sentinence hands out the red pill. We take the ride with you down the rabbit hole and come out on the other side, ahead of your competitors and compliant.
Sentinence
