May 2010 Customer Due Diligence (CDD)
The Patriot Act and other Anti-money laundering (AML) rules and regulations are designed to reduce a firm's risk in assisting terrorist financing; protect firms from criminal activities; and assist law enforcement in investigations and prosecutions. AML rules must continuously evolve as the methods used by criminals and terrorists become more sophisticated. This is why AML continuing education goes hand-in-hand with a firm's reporting requirements.
Recently the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and other regulators issued a joint release designed to provide guidance on the applicability of AML regulations when performing due diligence on clients. This month, FIRE Solutions is featuring an excerpt included in all our AML Courses entitled, "Regulators Issue Guidance on Customer Due Diligence." The excerpt outlines the various types of accounts that possess a higher risk of concealing beneficial ownership.
FIRE's Suite of AML Courses
FIRE Solutions' suite of AML courses is designed to address all aspects of a firm's AML continuing education requirements. FIRE recognizes that firms face the challenge of providing fresh, relevant topics year after year. To help with this challenge, FIRE introduces new AML courses annually and updates our existing AML suite as new issues arise.
FIRE's 2010 suite of AML courses includes:
FIRE also carries the following FINRA AML courses:
April 2010 Social Networking Sites and Blogs - Did I Just Make a Recommendation?
Forty-six percent of Americans who used the Internet in 2009 logged onto a social networking site, according to a FINRA task force commissioned to study social networking sites and blogs. With the pace of technology speeding up the way we do business, it's tempting for representatives to side-step those gray areas of compliance that are still not well defined. Rapid fire communication could leave reps wondering, "Did I just make a recommendation?" Making an inadvertent recommendation could leave you and your firm exposed to a violation of suitability obligations.
This month, FIRE Solutions is featuring a document entitled, "Did I Just Make A Recommendation?" an excerpt from our new course, Communications - Use and Supervision of Social Networking Sites and Blogs. It outlines the considerations used to determine what constitutes a recommendation, and when a representative is obligated to make a suitability determination.
Communications - Use and Supervision of Social Networking Sites and Blogs
Communications - Use and Supervision of Social Networking Sites and Blogs is a course designed to fulfill training requirements recommended by FINRA, for those firms who allow their representatives to use these sites to communicate their "business as such." FINRA recognizes that these emerging media are useful tools for communicating with clients in the financial services industry. In turn, firms must recognize the regulatory concerns and address these new supervisory challenges in order to allow and monitor this type of communication.
Our course focuses on the following topics:
March 2010 Taking Your Ethical Temperature
This month's FIRE On Your Side features a document called Take Your Ethical Temperature. This excerpt from our Ethics (General) course includes a brief overview of ethics vs. morals; the breakdown of an ethical decision making process; a case study applying the process to a real life scenario; and an interactive exercise to test your ethical temperature. The interactive exercise is included for your enjoyment and demonstrates the fine line between ethical and unethical decisions.
The full Ethics (General) course focuses on the following topics:
FINRA's New Regulatory Element CE Outline
FINRA has recently revised the outline for the Regulatory Element Continuing Education study guide. The Ethics course is also part of FIRE's Regulatory Element CE suite of courses designed to increase knowledge and competency of topics covered in FINRA Regulatory Element training sessions.
February 2010 Customer Due Diligence (CDD)
The Patriot Act and other Anti-money laundering (AML) rules and regulations are designed to reduce a firm's risk in assisting terrorist financing; protect firms from criminal activities; and assist law enforcement in investigations and prosecutions. AML rules must continuously evolve as the methods used by criminals and terrorists become more sophisticated. This is why AML continuing education goes hand-in-hand with a firm's reporting requirements.
Recently the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and other regulators issued a joint release designed to provide guidance on the applicability of AML regulations when performing due diligence on clients. This month, FIRE Solutions is featuring an excerpt included in all our AML Courses entitled, "Regulators Issue Guidance on Customer Due Diligence." The excerpt outlines the various types of accounts that possess a higher risk of concealing beneficial ownership.
FIRE's Suite of AML Courses
FIRE Solutions' suite of AML courses is designed to address all aspects of a firm's AML continuing education requirements. FIRE recognizes that firms face the challenge of providing fresh, relevant topics year after year. To help with this challenge, FIRE introduces new AML courses and implements full course updates when new AML issues arise.
FIRE's 2010 suite of AML courses includes:
FIRE also carries the following FINRA AML courses:
January 2010 Early Warning & Customer Protection
This month FIRE Solutions is featuring a document called "Early Warning & Customer Protection." This excerpt from one of our courses, FINOP Duties and Customer Protection, is designed to give compliance professionals an overview of the process used to identify early warning signs, and when the financial condition of a Broker Dealer (B/D) could affect the firm's ability to conduct business.
FINRA rules require all B/Ds to have a Financial and Operations Principal (FINOP) who is responsible for the final preparation and accuracy of financial reports submitted to securities regulators, as well as the supervision of individuals who assist in the preparation of such reports and who maintain the firm's financial books and records.
The FINOP Duties and Customer Protection course provides a review of regulations involving the financial operations of a brokerage firm. This course is ideal for financial operations personnel, compliance personnel, internal auditors, as well as those responsible for the supervisory controls audit. The Securities Exchange Act of 1934 requires that every B/D meet certain financial and other reporting requirements. The three major rules covered in this course are:
Highlights of the course include:
December 2009 Anti-Money Laundering Regulatory Focus
This month FIRE Solutions is featuring a document called, "Anti-Money Laundering - Regulatory Focus" This excerpt from one of our courses, AML Current Issues 2009, highlights the emerging money laundering trends and efforts by enforcement agencies to eliminate them. From this article, you will learn the following:
AML Current Issues 2009 reviews the most current and prominent AML rules violations, penalties and fines imposed against banking and broker dealer firms. The objective is to highlight what, where, why and how some firms went astray and also to show how often the root cause of the problem lay in failure to develop, document, implement and properly (independently) test AML and CIP procedures.
The more detailed case studies and current issues reviewed in this course highlight real-world schemes and how they were pulled off. While money-laundering operations often originate away from the immediate view of financial institutions, substantial sums ultimately find their way into banks and broker/dealer firms.
In this Firm Element Continuing Education course, your representatives will learn how Money Laundering Schemes were detected and reported by alert representatives who noticed when "things just didn't add up" and decided to probe a bit further. These actions ultimately resulted in arresting the money laundering activity and preventing the representative's firm from unwittingly facilitating the illegal activity.
November 2009 Anti-Money Laundering Regulatory Focus
This month FIRE Solutions is featuring a document called, "Anti-Money Laundering - Regulatory Focus" This excerpt from one of our courses, AML Current Issues 2009, highlights the emerging money laundering trends and efforts by enforcement agencies to eliminate them. From this article, you will learn the following:
AML Current Issues 2009 reviews the most current and prominent AML rules violations, penalties and fines imposed against banking and broker dealer firms. The objective is to highlight what, where, why and how some firms went astray and also to show how often the root cause of the problem lay in failure to develop, document, implement and properly (independently) test AML and CIP procedures.
The more detailed case studies and current issues reviewed in this course highlight real-world schemes and how they were pulled off. While money-laundering operations often originate away from the immediate view of financial institutions, substantial sums ultimately find their way into banks and broker/dealer firms.
In this Firm Element Continuing Education course, your representatives will learn how Money Laundering Schemes were detected and reported by alert representatives who noticed when "things just didn't add up" and decided to probe a bit further. These actions ultimately resulted in arresting the money laundering activity and preventing the representative's firm from unwittingly facilitating the illegal activity.
September 2009 Duty To Investigate
This month FIRE Solutions is featuring a document called Your Duty to Investigate. This excerpt from one of our newest courses, Preventing Illegal Resales of Restricted and Unregistered Stock, highlights the "red flag" activities that should prompt an investigation of potentially illegal resales, and provides a list of indicators that will allow the firm to complete a transaction with confidence, or warrant a further probe.
Protect your firm from unwittingly becoming a participant in the illegal distribution of unregistered and restricted stock into the public markets.
In many case studies that illustrate a failure to supervise, the words, "the firm knew or should have known" appear. This phrase is at the heart of many firm's surveillance programs and supervisory controls. Your Duty to Investigate helps you and your firm identify when you "should have known" to investigate.
Click here for your copy of the "Your Duty to Investigate" document.
For a more complete understanding of Illegal Resales, our Preventing Illegal Resales of Restricted and Unregistered Stock Firm Element Continuing Education course and Annual Compliance Meeting (ACM) topics include a full description of the following concepts:
Whereas SEC Rule 144 and 144A covers the proper resale of restricted stock, this course illustrates a firm's obligations to detect and investigate abusive practices related to the unregistered resale of restricted stock.
This course looks at the types of activities that are considered a "red flag" for suspicious activity that should prompt an investigation. Under SEC Rule 144, firms have specific investigation obligations determining when the firm knows or should have known about suspicious activities. Finally, the adoption of adequate best practices will help in preventing your firm from becoming a "should-have-known" case study.
August 2009 - Third-Party Research Reports
This month FIRE Solutions is featuring a document called "Disclosure and Supervision of 3rd Party Research Reports." This excerpt from one of our courses, Distribution of 3rd Party Research Reports, is designed to minimize, through disclosure, the conflict of interest inherent in the distribution of all types of research reports. After reading this report you will understand:
The Distribution of 3rd Party Research Reports course is designed to help representatives identify the various types of research analysts, their motives, as well as their own disclosure and supervision requirements. This course describes the business of research along with its influences and the conflicts that require disclosure. Highlights of the course include:
On August 1st, 2009, FINRA will begin enforcement of the Federal Trade Commission's FACT Act regulations. Under the FACT Act, member firms who are considered either a "financial institution" or a "creditor," and offered "covered accounts," are required to develop and implement an Identity Theft Prevention Program (ITPP) that will "deter, detect, and prevent the unauthorized access and use of confidential and sensitive client information." For more information about FACT Act applicability and the Act's definitions of "financial institution", "creditor", and "covered account", see FINRA's Regulatory Notice 08-69.
For a full lesson on FACT Act requirements, our Firm Element continuing education course and our Annual Compliance Meeting topic, "Identity Theft - Red Flags," includes a full description of the following concepts:
This course examines the primary rules that protect customer information and the role that employees play in identifying identity theft red flags. Finally, the course covers various methods used by hackers that steal customer identities.
June 2009 - FINRA Course Offerings
Through an agreement with FINRA, FIRE Solutions is pleased to announce we are now offering a selection of FINRA's e-learning courses, including:
All FINRA courses have been seamlessly integrated into FIRE's Firm Element Continuing Education platform, offering all the benefits you've come to expect from FIRE:
May 2009 - Due Diligence for New Products
This month, FIRE Solutions is featuring a document called "Due Diligence - Asking the right questions." In this excerpt taken from our New Products continuing education course, we focus on the questions that regulators want you to ask when considering a new product offering at your firm.
In an ever-changing economic environment, representatives continue to seek new ways of providing higher returns and lower risks. Many times that search leads to new products or non-conventional investments. Our New Products course outlines the regulatory expectations for approving, selling, and supervising these products; it also describes how to determine what a "new product" is, and provides specific definitions to many popular non-conventional investments. Finally, students learn the suitability factors specific to non-conventional investments. With this knowledge, students will understand the importance of the review and approval process and be able to describe the regulatory expectations surrounding new product offerings.
The complete New Products course includes a full description of the following concepts:
April 2009 - Mutual Fund Approval Checklist and Red Flag Surveillance Tool
This month FIRE On Your Side is featuring two supervisory tools from one of our newest courses, Mutual Fund Supervision --A Mutual Fund Approval Checklist and a Red Flag Surveillance Tool.
The term, "Failure to Supervise," can be a haunting concept for new supervisors, branch managers, and even seasoned compliance officers. It conjures up a fear of "What don't I know?" These tools are designed to help you answer that question confidently.
Our Mutual Fund Approval Checklist is a starting point in keeping the supervision of mutual fund transactions consistent and all inclusive with respect to the applicable rules that govern the sale of mutual funds.
Our Red Flag Surveillance Tool is a list of activities that indicate that further explanation or investigation is required. Many of the items rely on human deduction and go above and beyond the alerts that could be generated from your firm's trading systems. Click here for your copy of both tools.
For a full lesson on Mutual Fund Supervision, our Firm Element continuing education course, Mutual Fund Supervision, includes a full description of the following concepts:
March 2009 - Madoff Scandal Highlights the Importance of Ethics
On March 12th's Bloomberg Radio Surveillance broadcast, Bruce Foerster, President of South Beach Capital Markets spoke with Bloomberg's Tom Keene and Ken Prewitt about the Madoff scandal, and the importance of ethical dealings in the financial markets. These have been, and will continue to be, the subject of increased scrutiny from government and industry watchdogs.
Not surprisingly, many firms are focusing a spotlight on ethics and ethics training, and how they can be sure that their employees have been properly schooled in ethical practices. Online learning provides a scalable way to quickly and easily deliver and track ethics training. FIRE Solutions has been in the business of delivering web-based ethics training for over a decade, and can help you address this vital need and, at your option, simultaneously fulfill part of your Firm Element Continuing Education requirement.
FIRE's Ethics course offerings include:
All of these courses have been updated for 2009, and are available for immediate online delivery to your employees. FIRE's 24/7 reporting and completion binders insure that course participation is tracked and available both during and after course delivery. To access our complete course catalog, click here.
FIRE Solutions is committed to providing the Financial Services community with best-of-breed compliance and training solutions.
This month, FIRE Solutions is featuring a free article, The Perfect Financial Storm, on its website. Get a bird's eye view of the cause of the storm and the debris it left behind. You'll come away with a thorough understanding of how so many financial factions can be interconnected through clear explanations, pertinent examples, and insightful conclusions. Topic highlights include: Step-by-step review of the 2008 financial crisis
The article is followed by a section entitled, "Bottom-line Compliance for 2009." This section outlines some of the compliance issues that are now at the forefront of the regulators' sights as a result of the 2008 financial crisis. This section also focuses on areas that will need an extra measure of surveillance, and methods to improve complaint-prevention efforts.