The FinancialThe Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) has published a review of its Cyprus Investment Firms (CIF) and identified a number of deficiencies, as well as good practices among brokers it regulates.
The regulator noted that most deficiencies are in risk assessment, monitoring activities and compliance and indicated that “the management board should convene regular meetings where the compliance function can properly present material deviations or situations requiring urgent resolution in order to rectify any urgent compliance matters and the compliance function should properly record such meetings.”
Further issues include reporting obligations and the fact that some CIFs only focus their annual compliance reports on “findings from the evaluation of the Regulated Entities’ written policies and procedures.” In addition, firms are apparently lacking in advisory obligations by not providing “enough evidence or details of regular internal and external training is provided such as records of training logs.”
Good practices were identified in areas of minutes of quarterly meetings with compliance officers and management, as well as preparation of quarterly reports.
CySEC included a set of next steps and advised regulated brokers to “consider the issues raised in this circular against their policies and arrangements in place in relation to the compliance with the compliance function requirements. If, when reviewing the policies and arrangements in place, Regulated Entities identify any weaknesses – they must take immediate actions to ensure compliance.”