This program offers you step-by-step guidance on how to set up and manage all essential aspects of your FinTech Compliance program – efficiently and on a budget!
Whether you are a compliance expert or a founder handling your company's compliance, the worst possible mistake in compliance is starting from scratch! Stop reinventing policies, processes, or documentation for partners – we've got you covered!
You are likely to experience the following outcomes during the first 60 days:
- As a business leader or a founder, you will not longer feel restricted, not knowing which risks are real and which risks can be tolerated, because you will simplify your risk assessment approach by implementing simple affordable testing phase for any new initiative, so you will know exactly how and where to take more risks.
- As a compliance leader, you will know how to confidently present your proposals and budget requests and get them approved and your professional reputation will shift from “business-friendly” (aka “easy to manipulate”) to respectable and equal business-like compliance partner.
- Your company will have a blueprint for interactions with auditors, regulators, banks or financial partners.
- You will have an option to get officially certified (for you or one of your team members) as a FinTech Startups Compliance Pro (CPD assessed).
How is this program different from any other compliance training? - Our approach is based on "Just-in-Time" principles as a foundation of agile, scalable and results-oriented compliance:
- Documentation (your policies and procedures)
- Decisions (pragmatic risk-taking)
- Operational efficiency (just-in-time processes)
Why are these 3 components so essential?
- Pragmatic risk-taking combined with efficient processes will create growth and scale.
- But… without documentation and policies, you will experience an “undocumented growth” which is a problem, when it comes to securing important partnerships and licenses.
- Efficient operational processes combined with documentation will equal compliance because you do what your policies say, but without risk-taking, you end up being a conservative, rigid old-fashioned bank.
- Risk-taking combined with great documentation will create a great public image, but if you don’t actually do what your policies say, it is just a window-dressing, and you’ll get caught.
Where can you begin and how does it work?
1. Documentation: defining the rules you will follow
Regulatory and other approvals are often secured by preparing disclosures, reports, and policies. Our tried-and-tested templates are continuously fine-tuned and updated, based on feedback received from our clients. The worst possible mistake you can make with compliance policies is to start from scratch. Our templates will save you time and resources previously spent on reinventing the wheel and starting from scratch with a blank page syndrome! Remember, the purpose of your compliance policies is not only to define what to do but (more so) to be used as an illustration of why and how your startup is credible and trustworthy.
2. Decisions: pragmatic risk-taking.
Risk management and risk acceptance are fancy words for good judgment and efficient decision-making. This aspect of implementing just-in-time compliance is the hardest to train and the slowest to change, it requires a shift in perspective. Successful business-like CCOs and compliance leaders think very differently about risks, uncertainties, success, and decision-making. They are unafraid of mistakes, and they don't merely search for solutions – they create solutions.
They manage compliance function as a profit center, not a cost center, in terms of ROI and probabilities rather than asking for and appropriating budgets with minimal accountability.
We cover the implementation of the new approach to risk within the Business Wide Risk Assessment workshop adopting our Risk Management policy for all aspects of your FinTech or Crypto business.
3. Operational Efficiency: just-in-time processes
A big part of compliance contribution to the business is implementing efficient processes around onboarding and transaction monitoring, opening bank accounts, securing licenses and partnerships, opening new geographies responding to regulators, drafting various reports, and managing ongoing inspections and audits. These processes need to be streamlined and simplified, otherwise, your compliance team will be spending too much time on documentation and not enough time reviewing new projects, new clients, and assessing new opportunities. With license applications and planning your partnerships, structuring white-label solutions, or accepting international customers into your current entity – you need to learn how to allocate your resources wisely because there will be waiting times, delays, and rejections. Not everything needs to be ready right away and not everyone needs to be hired at once, otherwise, you will run out of money! A dozen implementation workshops on all critical aspects of compliance operations are included in the Compliance That Makes Sense packages.
WHAT IS INSIDE?
This package of FinTech Compliance templates and pre-recorded project management trainings is updated for 2024 and includes all mandatory elements to set up your FinTech compliance.
- AML, KYC, PEPs, sanctions policies and SOPs, onboarding flow setup guide (including policies, tools review, and guidance on admin and case management setup)
- Privacy and GDPR module, including privacy policy, GDPR compliance policy, binding corporate rules, and standard contractual closes or Data Transfer Appendix template (to be included in all your contracts with vendors and payments partners where data transfer is involved)
- Outsourcing framework setup, including outsourcing policy template and outsourcing assessment checklist
- Consumer and Investor Protection, including Customer Protection and Complaints Handling Policy, Investor Protection Policy, and Customer Funds Safeguarding Procedure (for fiat and crypto services)
- Information Security, including InfoSec policy, incident management, and business continuity policy
- Blockchain-specific regulations, including Blockchain Operational compliance policy
- Corporate Governance and Board of Directors set up, Code of Conduct, Segregation of Duties guidance, Anti-Bribery and Corruption procedure, and other relevant templates (e.g. gift policy, HR screening, etc.)
- Business-wide risk assessment and product risk assessment (with dedicated sections for AML, Product, VASPs, General Risks, Financial Risks, Startup Risks, and Regulatory Risks)
- Risk Management, Assessment, and Fraud Prevention, including relevant Risk Management policy and Risk Assessment and Risk Assessment methodology templates
- Conflict of Interests and Insider Trading Policy
- Terms of Service, Affiliation and Loyalty Programs structuring (including sample language for loyalty points or reward programs, beta testing provisions, and affiliation program templates)
- Inter-Company Agreements and SLAs
- Detailed and comprehensive Annual Compliance Plan and sample Internal Audit Plan. Compliance Assurance Framework (roles of FLOD, SLOD, audit)
- FinTech Licensing - including License Application Template, financial projections template, business plan template, FinTech licensing roadmap, first regulatory inquiry template
- Token listing and token assessment criteria (for cryptocurrency exchanges or wallets).
- FATCA and CRS compliance policy
* * * BONUS: FINTECH STARTUP COMPLIANCE PRO CERTIFICATION * * *
This program allows you (or one of your team members) to complete our very unique FinTech Compliance certification that will prepare you to handle the most common compliance challenges and will elevate your competence and confidence to the next level where you feel ready not only to set and manage a superb compliance program within your FinTech startup, but will have a framework for making pragmatic risk-based decisions.
In addition to the pre-recorded curriculum, workshops, and instant access to all templates, you will have access to additional training and coaching focused on the most relevant and complex FinTech compliance performance and leadership topics. The total of 5 LIVE training group calls are included to help you implement our content within your company and prepare you for the final assignment.
The Certification Schedule for 2024
3 cohorts are currently planned for 2024:
- Starting on January 20 and graduating by April 15.
- Starting on April 15 and graduating by August 15.
- Starting on September 16 and graduating by December 16.
If you would like to obtain the official certification as a "Certified Startup FinTech Compliance Pro", you will be asked to prepare your case study project, which will be assessed and graded. Remember, success in the FinTech compliance formula is 10% regulatory knowledge and 90% decision-making, negotiations, and leadership skills.
Below is the Certification-specific curriculum:
1. Goal-setting. Our first group call is a workshop dedicated to determining specific deliverables or professional results each participant decides to set for themselves or their function.
2. Manage regulatory change workshop is dedicated to developing the skills needed to prepare and manage any regulatory change. We will use the example of MICA Regulation implementation, and in particular - on building a new MICA-compliance framework for token listing and token assessment to get compliant with MICA disclosure requirements.
3. Preparing compliance ROI and communicating with senior management. We will have a special training where the participants will have to analyze key components of the compliance costs prepare a project analysis for a new compliance initiative using ROI method. This workshop also provides you with a framework to address disagreements between compliance and business using NLP framework.
4. Developing Annual Compliance Plan training covers the following areas:
- Organizational structure
- Hiring and firing principles
- Setting revenue-generating objectives
- Making ROI-based resource estimates
- Defining KPIs for all key compliance areas: new products, AML, risk management, reporting, outsourcing, funds safeguarding, and governance.
5. Behaviors that keep us stuck and conflict resolution. Everyone who was unable to take an agreed-upon action, feels “behind” or otherwise is unhappy with their progress, will have to assess what is preventing them from taking a different action and will get coaching and feedback on how to make the changes they desire to see. This training also covers communication strategies helping you solve intra-departmental conflicts using the NLP methodology.
Final Assignment – where can you take more risks? The participants will have to identify, prepare, and justify a case study about where their function or company should take more risks.
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Recorded project management workshops and video trainings that are instantly available:
- Rise of the Business-Like CCO introductory training.
- Opening bank account and preparing for banking due diligence roadmap
- FinTech Licensing workshop and licensing planning roadmap
- FinTech Risk Assessment workshop
- Structuring White-Label Solutions in FinTech
- Onboarding of corporate customers workshop
- Creating your FinTech Privacy Policy and GDPR Compliance
- Preparing for and managing FinTech AML and operational audits
- Annual compliance reporting requirements for FinTech workshop (all mandatory reports templates included)
- Documenting your Outsourcing workshop
- Compliance Performance and Resource Management
- End-to-end Crypto Compliance Workshop (including a separate dedicated training on how to comply with Apple and Appstore Guidelines)
... plus new content and templates are added regularly!
ADDITIONAL BONUS CONTENT:
Certification Requirements:
Certification is an enhancement of this program, to introduce more accountability, more discipline, and an additional feedback mechanism for those participants who would like to get certified. It is optional.
In order to get certified you must watch all 10 mandatory workshops, attend or watch the recordings of all 5 Certification trainings, and successfully complete a case study project.
Certification Benefits: depending on your company's policies, an official certification status of the program can potentially help you claim the cost reimbursement and/or additional study leave or time-off. You will receive the proof of 30 hours invested into continuous education.
How the FinTech Startup Compliance Pro Certification approach is different from the traditional compliance courses:
- OLD WAY: Traditional compliance assigns responsibility to the “tone at the top”, removes responsibility for risk management from compliance stating that “business must own their risks” and describes compliance as an advisor, providing feedback and reporting to the senior management. According to this outdated theory, compliance can only be blamed or found guilty if it did not detect some risks or irregularities and/or did not warn or escalate the issues accordingly. Every single time we read about the fact that some high-profile bank had been fined by their regulator for money-laundering breaches or excessive risk-taking, you will see and hear the same story: compliance and risk identified and escalated the issues or potential risks well in advance and repeatedly, the problem was discussed by the board and various committees and then the was a collective decision to go ahead and do (or allow) the activities that happened. Assigning responsibilities to the top and isolating compliance from business and risk-taking decisions does not produce better compliance or better business outcomes.
- New WAY: Our approach is focused on making sure that compliance is the ultimate decision-maker. Compliance leaders want to be included, respected, and appreciated for their insights. But this respect cannot be earned if you are not responsible for anything and have no skin in the game. We teach you how to take risks that you are comfortable with and can defend in front of others.
- OLD WAY: Traditional compliance scholars will tell you that the key to compliance success is to make sure compliance gets adequate resources and more senior management attention. What’s wrong with this? Ask any CEO and/or CFO of any financial institution or even a smaller FinTech (off the record, obviously) and they will tell you how they spend a disproportionate amount of time in compliance-related, audits, risk reviews, and similar meetings, where they learn nothing new, decide very little and don’t see things improving. The more resources traditional companies and scale-up FinTechs invest into compliance, the more new issues they identify that need to be solved. The biggest compliance fines are very often paid by the biggest banks.
- NEY WAY. We teach you and will ask you to prepare an assignment on how to do the right things at the right time and how to take pragmatic risks without compromising compliance objectives.
- OLD WAY. Traditional compliance scholars view compliance as a cost function, that needs to receive an appropriate budget. Traditional compliance certification training won’t teach you modern project management skills, or project prioritization skills, or pragmatic risk-taking skills. They teach you “how to be on the safe side”, “protect your back” skills, and “better safe than sorry” strategies. When you don’t get things done and cannot prioritize available resources and won’t help your company achieve its strategic goals, objectively speaking, you add zero value to the company.
- NEW WAY. We will teach you how and will ask you to prepare an ROI assessment for your compliance budget, and by the end of the program, you will be ready to act like a business-like CCO.
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HOW TO ASK YOUR COMPANY TO APPROVE THIS INVESTMENT ?
Download this reimbursement request letter and send it to your boss.
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Please note that this offer is non-refundable as soon as you access the content.
Logistics: After you have made the payment, you will be granted access to the password-protected area of the course portal where all recorded content and templates will be delivered to you. You will be prompted to create your login and password which you will need to access the program recordings at any time in the future. The schedule will be communicated over email.
Questions? – [email protected]
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