Lilian Maters- de Groen

Senior Advisor, Internal Audit, Risk & Compliance

E lilian.maters.de.groen@bdo.nl

T +31 (0)30 284 98 00

External compliance officer

Our compliance professionals can support your organisation by performing the compliance function for you (outsourcing) or by assisting your internal compliance function. In this context, our services would include advising on certain issues, flagging and informing you of regulatory updates or providing subject matter input.

Audits

We can perform internal audits of a variety of compliance issues or the compliance function itself. We can also carry out quick scans to prepare you for an investigation by a regulator.

Policies and procedures

Our team has the expertise to draft compliance policies and procedures or to review existing documents. We can also help you write documents, such as a code of conduct, or set up the required records (such as a record of complaints).

Training and workshops

We have developed workshops for executive and non-executive directors, senior management and other employees. These workshops or e-learning modules can be tailored to the needs of the trainees or the organisation.

Licences

We can provide support to your organisation while you are in the process of applying for a licence from the Dutch Central Bank (DNB) or the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM). We can help you navigate the process or assist on specific issues.

Services offered by BDO

Non-compliance can have major consequences. At BDO, we offer a multidisciplinary team that can take charge of every aspect of the compliance function for you:

Compliance function and integrity

In terms of the three-line-of-defence model, the compliance function is positioned in the second line, which is designed to provide support and advice to the first line (i.e. the business). The second line is also responsible for monitoring compliance with internal and external rules and regulations. At our clients, we often see deep involvement of the compliance function in first-line activities, which creates a certain degree of friction between the desire to help out the business and the monitoring role the compliance function is expected to play. The compliance function will typically take charge of first-line responsibilities if the first line lacks knowledge of compliance issues. That is why it is important for an organisation to monitor the independence of its compliance function.

Regulators are also showing a growing interest in the performance of the compliance function. They are imposing increasingly strict performance guidelines and knowledge requirements (e.g. the recently published ESMA Guidelines on the MiFID II Compliance Function Requirements). Regulators expect a compliance officer to work on their continuing professional development and most financial enterprises are now under the statutory obligation to have a compliance officer on staff.

Compliance professionals have become scarce in 2021. Given that financial enterprises have difficulty recruiting suitable candidates, they sometimes choose to outsource their compliance function, either fully or in part.

Public scrutiny of corporate integrity has increased. Alongside compliance with the letter of the law, organisations are now expected to focus mainly on acting according to the spirit of the law. Compliance officers not only concentrate on hard controls, but increasingly focus on soft controls as well. This means that more emphasis is being placed on employee conduct and corporate culture, as well as on the tone-at-the-top.

Compliance has increasingly gained traction in recent years. The concept of compliance has become entrenched in the financial sector. The focus on compliance, and on the compliance function in particular, started to pick up right after the banking crisis of 2007-2008. Regulations have tightened ever since. Also, regulations require more effort to implement and they are changing more frequently.