Lawyer Monthly Magazine - August 2019 Edition

When it carries out a Supervisory Review Visit, the FCA will normally request information and documents from the firm concerned. This could include details of clients, adviceprovided (where relevant) transactions carried out or other records relating to the firm for the time period under investigation. The FCA will normally also interview relevant people including a firm’s directors, senior managers and advisers or investment managers. If the information provided to the FCA does not clearly demonstrate compliance with the rules, then the FCA may require the firm to take remedial action. Where the FCA identifies actual or suspected breaches of their rules, it may refer the firm to the Enforcement Department who may then undertake an enforcement investigation and take disciplinary action against the firm and/or its directors. The best way for a firm to prepare for an FCA visit is for it to have a robust risk assessment and risk control framework within the firm. This will include having detailed and robust compliance policies and procedures. It will also include having a robust and up to date system of accurate and timely record keeping and of regular and frequent compliance monitoring checks to make sure the firm complies fully with FCA rules requirements at all times. Where do you come in, once the firm has been subjected to legal proceedings? Where a firm is subject to legal proceedings, it may well be the case that the firmand its directors or employees or their legal advisers may lack the necessary expertise or experience to progress key aspects of a claim or to defend key aspects of a claim. It is at this point that they may seek an expert witness to provide expert opinion on key aspects of the case. A firm’s legal advisers will agree with the Court what the key issues are for which expert opinion is required and whether each party will appoint its own expert or whether a Single Joint Expert will be appointed. At that stage, the legal advisers will select and instruct an appropriate expert. What would you say are top three things your clients should acknowledge in order to avoid disputes? Keep accurate and timely written records of meetings or phone calls that involve a client or that relate to a client. Keep a record of all correspondence or e-mails that relate to a client. Keep accurate and timely records of all aspects of the governance, risk assessment, financials, operational monitoring and compliance monitoring within the firm. Always remember that in a dispute, in regulatory investigations or in litigation, the other party will often take the view that if it isn’t written down, it didn’t happen. LM I am Paul Grainger. I am Chief Executive Officer of Complyport Limited, which is a Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) consulting firm in the financial services sector. We provide ad- vice, guidance and hands-on assistance to firms regarding fi- nancial services regulation in the UK and overseas. I lead the firm and manage it on a day to day basis. We have a team of 17 people based mainly in London with some col- leagues based in Manchester or working remotely. I regularly act as an Expert Witness mostly in civil cases but occa- sionally criminal cases too. I have acted as a Single Joint Expert when required. I lead Complyport’s Expert Witness team and my work in this area can cover regulatory and compliance matters or the suitability of financial advice and transactions. I have over 35 years’ experience in both retail financial services and wholesale financial services, including investment banking, insurance, corporate finance, private equity, funds and financial planning and wealth management. I am the former Chairperson of the Financial Planning Standards Board (UK). I sit on the Examinations Board of the Chartered Insti- tute for Securities and Investment (CISI) and I also sit on the CISI Advanced Financial Planning Examination panel. I Chair the Brexit Working Group for the Association of Profession- al Compliance Consultants (APCC) and I also sit on other APCC Working Groups. I have led several Section 166 Skilled Persons investigations for the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and for its predecessor the Financial Services Authority (FSA). I have also carried out in- vestigations commissioned by firms or their legal advisers. Paul Grainger, Chief Executive Officer, Complyport Limited 60 Cannon Street, London, EC4N 6NP T: +44 (0)20 7399 4980 | info@complyport.co.uk www.complyport.com ABOUT PAUL GRAINGER CONTACT 51 AUG 2019 | WWW.LAWYER-MONTHLY.COM Expert Witness By Paul Grainger, Complyport