A day in life of a Compliance Manager
Hello! My name is Masha and I am a Compliance Manager in one of the leading regional compliance and business advisory firms.
People ask me sometimes what it is like working for a consulting firm, and how it is different from being an in-house Compliance Officer and MLRO. To get an idea, have a look at what my typical day looks like.
I will skip the morning part of dogs-walking and feeding them along with the bunny and fishes followed by a rushed get-ready-for-the-office and munch-something-while-driving, and get straight to 9:30 when I usually reach the office. Check-ins are flexible since the firm respects staff late hours or working from home in the afterhours – as long as you honour all your internal and client deadlines, you are doing well. I personally prefer this goal-oriented approach, even if it results in working more hours a week, to the robotic 9-to-6 typical schedule of financial companies, where often you will not even have enough work to fill those hours.
Having grabbed a cup of coffee, I browse quickly through my daily news feed: AML news by RiskScreen, ML news by ACAMS, and GlobalComplianceNews as well as general resources, usually The National for local and The Guardian for international coverage.
10 minutes later I am ready to dive in the pile of work – the first thing I do is update the to-do list which I keep in e-sticky note, and prioritise the tasks:
- review the changes in Outsourcing Policy suggested by the client’s legal counsel from a regulatory compliance perspective (in my capacity as outsourced Compliance Officer);
- draft a response to the Regulator’s queries for the client seeking authorisation as a financial services provider,
- follow up with another client who has already received an in-principle approval from the Regulator but is now taking time to lease an office as a condition for registration and licensing,
- update the Risk Management Policy and Risk Register for another client where my outsourced Compliance Officer role includes risk management function,
- review a draft Corporate Governance Policy prepared by a junior team member,
- meet a potential new client in his office at 4 pm,
- return calls of two other potential clients who approached the Firm through the website,
- prepare a proposal for an interested client with whom we had a call yesterday.
Looks like some of the above I will have to complete at home after work – so I compile and organise a list of drafts and reference regulations.
The day goes by fast – work intermitted by discussions with colleagues, training of juniors, et cetera – at 3:30 I rush out to the client meeting. The meeting is intense, but pleasant – the client has an interesting fintech idea which we can help him to implement. After going through the technical details and finalising the regulatory aspects, we finish the meeting, and I head home, tired but with the good feeling of leaving a packed day behind.
At home, I would take a break and walk the dogs, and then finish the work scheduled for today, including the proposal for the fintech client. Each project is unique and the work while challenging is anything but boring. Time flies, and by the time I finish it is 8:30 already – time to call it a day and relax.
Who we are
Re/think is a boutique accounting, regulatory and compliance, VAT advisory, audit, HR consultancy, recruitment, and business advisory firm. We specialize in assisting SME clients with cost-effective, high-quality services and solutions. We create value by investing in highly qualified and motivated people and working closely with leading industry partners to provide our clients with a one-stop-shop for all of their business support.
This support ranges from our core services to CFO and board-level advisory for the sectors and markets we serve. Our ability to add value reaches across business size, as our offering can be adapted to startups through to large complex firms.
For entrepreneurs and international businesses please see “Sectors”, “Startup Hub”, as well as “Our Services” to see how we can help you today.
For Venture Capital, Private Equity, Family Offices, Corporate Services providers and Law Firms, please see “Sectors” as well as “Our Services” to see how our service offering can be tailored to your needs to create a long-term partnership for your own firm and for your clients.
For fund managers, FinTech’s, payment solution providers, crypto exchanges, and other regulated activities please see our regulatory and compliance services “Our Services” pages.