Complexities of Compliance in a New Era of SEC Initiatives Focus of Ascendant Compliance Conference

PALM SPRINGS, Calif., Oct. 6, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Colonel Mike Mullane, retired astronaut whose career included three Space Shuttle missions, opened the Ascendant Compliance Conference in Palm Springs, California, with this message to the investment industry: Be courageous in self-leadership, and push the bar higher. Colonel Mullane described the Challenger disaster as a predictable surprise, rather than an accident. He described how the damage to o-rings in early missions became accepted practice after the success of those missions and thus, a critical, zero tolerance engineering problem became what Colonel Mullane coins as the Normalization of Deviance.

Ascendant brought this story to its Compliance Conference for asset managers as a lesson on the dangers of compromising best practices and compliance policies. Colonel Mullane's life-and-death example is a tragic illustration of what happens when one does not rigidly maintain best practices through a mission. The session highlighted the critical importance of reviewing and learning from past failures and of conducting periodic re-sets to best practices. There should be no short cutting best practices. This message resonated with the audience of Chief Compliance Officers, COOs, and General Counsels of asset management firms. Diversity of perspective is a good and necessary thing, but the acceptance of small compliance violations leads to pre-determined predictable compliance failures, such as poor securities transaction execution, incomplete performance disclosures, social engineering susceptibility, cybersecurity failures, or theft of client assets. The Colonel's message reinforces SEC Chair Mary Jo White's 2013 "Broken Windows" speech indicating that policies should be strong and uncompromising, and one should not deviate from compliance with the law.

Ascendant's Compliance Conference provides a peer learning environment to discuss these timely issues and solutions. In the conference's Big Data panel, John Walsh, Partner at Sutherland and former OCIE Acting Director and General Counsel, Keith Marks of Ascendant Compliance Management and Bradley Swenson of ALPS, discussed the SEC's use of new big data tools in examinations and evaluated the impact on compliance departments. Sessions included how to apply new technologies and concepts to effective compliance testing, strong compliance programs, email surveillance, valuation, and incident management response.

Larry Clinton, President and CEO of Internet Security Alliance, discussed Practical Cybersecurity Implementation. Mr. Clinton suggested that investment managers should be proceeding down the path of IT Risk Assessments and NIST Framework implementation. Co-panelist Tim Villano, Ascendant's Chief Technology Officer, discussed with Mr. Clinton points regarding implementation, and other sessions further elucidated the very real cybersecurity dangers in our global environment. 

Richard Marshall, Partner at Ropes & Gray and former Senior Associate Regional Administrator leading the SEC's New York office, provided a keynote address, and described the many changes implemented, the SEC's use of big data analytics and the ever increasing role of enforcement in regulating the investment adviser industry. Mr. Marshall noted that advisory firms need to begin to utilize analytics tools similar to the National Examination Analytics Tool (NEAT) utilized by SEC examination staff.  

The conference wrapped up with insights into detecting fraud from retired FBI Agent Jeff Lanza of the Lanza Group. Additional sessions on compliance training, social media and marketing, examination of private equity firms, email surveillance, and ethics provided concrete compliance methodologies. 

Ascendant's Conference + Education Division is committed to fostering a peer learning environment with solutions for compliance professionals to strengthen compliance programs which protect investors. Conference delegates represented over $1 trillion in assets under management, including institutional managers, hedge fund managers, private equity managers, and firms providing personalized services. Delegates participated in over 20 hours of compliance learning followed by networking receptions and relationship building in the beautiful desert setting of Palm Springs.

Ascendant's next Conference + Education event is March 24-26, 2015 in Naples, Florida. For more information and to register, visit www.ascendantcompliance.com.

About Ascendant:
Ascendant Compliance Management is located in Salisbury, Connecticut, with offices in New York City and San Francisco, California. Ascendant offers integrated compliance and business solutions for investment advisers, broker-dealers, and private fund managers and provides compliance software and online training. For more information on Ascendant's services, such as annual reviews, compliance or IT risk assessments, and more, or for free compliance resources please visit www.ascendantcompliance.com or call 860-435-2255.

About Ascendant Conferences + Education:                    
Ascendant Compliance Management's Conferences + Education team is dedicated to the advancement of compliance professionals in the investment management industry. The interactive approach follows all of the latest trends in SEC examinations, risk assessments, analytics, insider trading, social media networks, compliance automation, ethics and fiduciary duty among other topics. The goal of the program is to equip compliance professionals with the necessary tools for developing and maintaining the highest standards of business practice management. For more information please visit www.ascendantcompliance.com.

Contact:  Melissa Maleri, 1-860-4352255, [email protected]

SOURCE Ascendant Compliance Management