The Handbook sets out the FCA legislative and other provisions for financial institutions that are seeking information on financial conduct rules and guidance. Updated regularly, Chief Compliance Officers and their teams are tasked with ensuring that their firm remains compliant with the latest Financial Services regulations.

By licensing the FCA Handbook Governor Software will not only empower its clients with clear visualisation of their regulatory obligations within its platform, but importantly link directly between the handbook and a financial institutions internal policies and controls. This linkage not only supports new versions of the handbook automatically being updated in client systems - allowing them to easily incorporate changes into their policies - but also clear, real-time proof of compliance in a structured and efficient manner that is fully auditable.

Richard Pike, Founder and CEO, Governor Software, commented: “Keeping abreast of the FCA Handbook is no mean feat for financial institutions, with requirements differing between organisations and updates frequent. While other companies publish this handbook within their software we believe we are the first to take the structure and enable clients to link their policies directly to it. This not only saves considerable man-hours, automatically alerting appropriate team members when their policies need updating or reviewing, but also provides comprehensive oversight and compliance through auditable mapping.”

“When a regulator walks through your door they think and assess financial institutions in terms of the FCA Handbook, this update basically allows our clients to present their data in the way the regulator thinks,” added Pike.

Last month the FCA announced that it is seeking views on how technology can make it easier for firms to meet their regulatory reporting requirements and improve the quality of the information they provide. This follows its successful TechSprint in November 2017, which Governor Software participated in, and saw contributors successfully develop a ‘proof of concept’ which could make regulatory reporting requirements machine-readable and executable. This straight-through processing of regulatory returns demonstrated benefit to both firms and regulators in regards to accuracy of submissions, cost reduction and changes to regulatory requirements being implemented more quickly.

Pike concluded: “Identifying, digesting and responding to regulatory requirements are a minefield for the vast majority of financial institutions. This event further highlighted the growing need to address those challenges and gave us the opportunity to demonstrate the part Governor Software can play making risk and compliance programmes accessible, consumable and actionable for senior leaders within large enterprise organisations.”