Although COFAs often hold senior positions and play an essential role in a firm’s financial and regulatory integrity, the perception of the compliance function itself is still evolving.

The SRA’s new thematic review into source of funds and wealth reveals both progress and persistent blind spots, with source-of-funds checks too often thought of as a procedural hurdle.

While SRA fines for AML have been climbing, many in the profession aren’t confident they will get any relief from the FCA, a body used to dealing with a highly regulated industry.

The main reason cited by people who do not have a will was a lack of awareness as to how to arrange one. As a professional community, we seem to be failing to get our message across.

From catastrophic firm collapses to endemic compliance failures, the evidence is mounting that the current multi-regulator model is fundamentally broken.