fintechbenchmark.com: The Fintech Benchmark

Back to Regulatory Compliance Systems products

Platforms that track changing regulations, automate compliance workflows, manage required disclosures, and ensure advisors meet regulatory obligations from bodies like the SEC, FINRA, and state regulators.

Every feature we track for Regulatory Compliance Systems products, with a description of what each one means.

Audit and Reporting

Provides comprehensive audit trails and custom reporting capabilities to demonstrate regulatory compliance and respond to examinations.

Audit Data Retention: Audit logs are retained for a customizable period per regulation.
Automated Report Distribution List Management: Manages report distribution lists and ensures correct stakeholders receive regulatory reports.
Comprehensive Audit Trail: Logs all system changes, user actions, and compliance events.
Custom Metrics and KPIs: Ability to define and track custom compliance or audit metrics.
Custom Report Builder: Users can build custom compliance and risk reports.
On-Demand Report Generation: Reports can be generated at any time, not just on a schedule.
Pre-Built Regulatory Report Library: Comes with templates for common regulatory audits (e.g., SEC Form ADV, FINRA 8210).
Regulatory Data Export Formats: Support for exporting reports in commonly accepted regulator formats (e.g. XML, CSV, PDF).
Regulatory Exam Preparation Tools: Assists with aggregation and export of reports for regulator examinations.
Report Annotation: Users can annotate and comment on reports within the system.
Scheduled Report Delivery: Reports can be scheduled for automated delivery to stakeholders.

Compliance Monitoring

Continuously monitors activity against compliance rules and triggers alerts on potential violations.

Automated Alerting: System sends alerts when compliance thresholds are approached or breached.
Automated Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) Generation: Automatically generates regulatory reports on potentially suspicious activities.
Continuous Learning: Utilizes machine learning to improve detection accuracy over time.
Customizable Monitoring Rules: Users can define and adjust their own sets of monitoring rules.
False Positive Rate: Rate of incorrect compliance alerts (false alarms).
Historical Data Analysis: Can analyze and report on past data for compliance trends.
Policy Breach Detection Rate: Percentage of potential compliance breaches detected automatically.
Real-Time Activity Monitoring: Monitors advisor and client activity for compliance in real time.
Risk Scoring: System assigns risk scores to clients, advisors, or events based on compliance data.
Role-Based Dashboard Views: Custom dashboards based on user roles to review ongoing compliance status.
Time to Alert Resolution: Average time from alert generation to issue resolution.

Data Security and Privacy

Ensures protection, privacy, and compliance of sensitive advisor and client data handled by the system.

Anonymization/Redaction Capabilities: Can redact or anonymize client and advisor data where appropriate.
Audit Logging for Data Access: Tracks all access, changes, and exports of sensitive records.
Client Data Portability Tools: Facilitates secure export or transfer of client records per privacy requests.
Data Breach Alerting: Automated alerts and response playbooks for data security incidents.
Data Destruction Verification: Automated logs and confirmations for deleted data when required.
Data Encryption At Rest: Encrypts all stored data to prevent unauthorized access.
Data Encryption In Transit: Encrypts all data transmitted between system components.
Encrypted Backup Management: All backups are encrypted and access-controlled.
GDPR/CCPA Compliance Features: Features to support GDPR, CCPA, or other privacy regulations.
Security Certifications Held: Indicates the number or types of security certifications (e.g., SOC 2, ISO 27001) held.
System Penetration Test Frequency: Number of penetration tests conducted per year.

Disclosure and Documentation Management

Manages generation, storage, delivery, and archiving of required compliance disclosures and supporting documentation.

Automated Acknowledgement Tracking: Automatically tracks client acknowledgement of received disclosures.
Automated Document Delivery: System automatically delivers disclosures and forms to clients and tracks receipt.
Bulk Document Processing: Ability to generate or process documents in bulk for multiple clients.
Client Portal Access: Clients can view/download compliance disclosures via secure web portal.
Document Retention Policy Automation: Automatically enforces document retention and deletion policies per regulation.
Document Searchability: Full-text search across all disclosures and compliance documentation.
Document Sharing Controls: Granular controls over who can view, download, or share compliance documents.
E-signature Integration: Integrated support for e-signatures on compliance documents.
Secure Storage of Documents: All disclosures and supporting documents are stored securely and encrypted.
Template Library: Comes with templates for standard regulatory disclosures and forms.
Version Control for Documents: Tracks historical versions and updates to compliance documentation.

Integration and Interoperability

Features related to how well the compliance system connects and synchronizes with other systems, data feeds, and external platforms.

API Availability: Provides a documented API for integration with other fintech systems.
Batch vs. Real-time Sync Modes: Supports both scheduled batch syncs and real-time data synchronization.
CRM Integration: Integrates with Advisor CRM platforms to pull relevant client/advisor data.
Data Import/Export Tools: Tools for importing and exporting compliance-relevant data.
Document Management System Integration: Supports integration with enterprise DMS like SharePoint or Box.
Event-Driven Integration: Supports event-driven triggers and actions from/to external systems.
Historical Data Synchronization: System can synchronize and ingest historical data from external sources.
Integration Documentation Quality: Rated quality of API and integration documentation.
Integration Turnaround Time: Time required to set up integrations with most common systems.
RegTech Vendor Marketplace Integration: Connects with external RegTech data feeds and vendors.
Single Sign-On (SSO): Supports SSO with enterprise identity platforms.

Regulatory Coverage

Features relating to the system's ability to identify, interpret, and apply multiple regulatory regimes and rules from governing bodies like the SEC, FINRA, and state authorities.

Audit Trail for Regulatory Updates: Maintains a historical log of all regulatory content updates and interpretations.
Automated Interpretation Engine: Uses AI/NLP to summarize and interpret new regulatory text.
Custom Rule Mapping: Ability to create or modify mappings to custom company-specific compliance policies.
Exception Handling: Detects, flags, and manages edge cases and exceptions in applicable regulation.
Integration with Legal Resources: Embeds or links to official legal interpretations or legal counsel resources.
International Regulation Support: Support for non-US regulations and cross-border compliance.
Jurisdictional Support: Ability to support regulations across multiple US states and federal bodies.
Real-Time Regulatory Updates: The system provides real-time updates when regulations change.
Regulation Database Size: Number of distinct regulatory statutes/rules tracked.
Regulatory Library Export Capability: Ability to export all regulatory content for offline analysis.
Rule Version Tracking: Tracks historical versions of regulations for comparison and audit.

Risk Assessment and Management

Delivers risk profiling, assessment, tracking, and mitigation tools to proactively manage compliance risk.

Automated Risk Mitigation Recommendations: System generates actionable recommendations for risk reduction.
Automated Risk Profiling: Automatically assesses compliance risk based on activity patterns.
Customizable Risk Scoring Models: Allows firms to tailor risk scoring and weighting to business priorities.
KRI (Key Risk Indicator) Tracking: Tracks and reports on key risk indicators for regulatory compliance.
Loss Event Logging: Tracks previous compliance losses and exposure events with analysis.
Mitigation Effectiveness Tracking: Monitors results of implemented risk controls or mitigations.
Risk Appetite Settings: Firm-level controls for setting acceptable risk thresholds.
Risk Event Notification Frequency: How frequently the system sends risk alerts.
Risk Heatmaps: Graphical representations of compliance risks across the firm.
Risk Mitigation Workflow Integration: Direct links between risk detection and workflow for resolution.
Scenario Stress Testing: Runs theoretical compliance failure scenarios to test controls.

Support and Vendor Reliability

Evaluates the qualities of software support, reliability, and vendor responsiveness.

24/7 Support Availability: Round-the-clock technical or compliance support for critical issues.
Client Reference Availability: Vendor can provide references from similar advisory firms or past clients.
Comprehensive Knowledge Base: Extensive online help documentation and user guides.
Dedicated Account Manager: Each client is assigned an account manager for escalations.
Frequency of Feature Updates: Average number of significant feature updates/releases each year.
In-Product Troubleshooting Tools: Self-service troubleshooting and diagnostic tools available to users.
Incident Response Time: Average time to respond to significant incidents.
Platform Roadmap Transparency: Vendor publishes technology/product roadmap to clients.
SLAs for Issue Resolution: Published service-level agreements on ticket response and resolution times.
System Uptime Statistics: Platform reports historical uptime performance.
Uptime Guarantee / SLA: Vendor guarantees a minimum uptime for the platform.

User Access and Permissions

Manages and customizes user roles, permissions, and secure access to features and data.

Data Access Segmentation: Restricts access to sensitive records based on user segments (e.g. office, branch, team, region).
Delegated Administration: Allows select users to manage user access in their department/unit.
Granular Role-Based Permissions: Enables detailed access control based on defined roles and responsibilities.
MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication) Support: Supports multi-factor authentication for additional security.
Multi-Level Approval Hierarchies: Supports layered approval structures in compliance workflows.
Permission Change Alerting: System sends alerts for sensitive permission changes.
Session Timeout Controls: Automatically logs out inactive users after set periods.
Third Party Vendor Access Management: Restricts and audits access for external users/vendors.
Time-Based Access Controls: Enables temporary, expiring access for audits or special cases.
User Access Audit Logging: Logs all user access and permission changes for security review.
User Profile Bulk Management Tools: Bulk onboard, modify, or offboard user permissions.

User Experience and Adoption

Promotes usability and encourages system adoption by advisors and compliance teams.

Accessibility Features: Meets major accessibility standards (e.g., WCAG 2.1).
Adoption Analytics: Metrics on feature adoption rates and user engagement.
Client-Facing User Experience: Easy-to-understand client portals for disclosure or audit interactions.
Contextual Help and Tooltips: Integrated help widgets, guides, and field-level tooltips.
Customizable Branding: Platform can be branded with a firm's identity (logos, colors).
Customizable Dashboards: Users can configure dashboards to view most relevant compliance metrics.
Feedback Collection in-App: Users can submit improvement suggestions and issue reports directly within app.
In-Application Support Chat: Live or AI-based support chat built into application UI.
Intuitive User Interface: Modern, user-friendly UI designed for easy navigation.
Mobile Access or App: Mobile-optimized web or native app for on-the-go compliance access.
Role-Based Training Modules: Tailored training materials and guided onboarding for each user role.

Workflow Automation

Automates steps in the compliance process, such as form generation, approvals, tracking, and escalation.

Approval Routing: Enables workflow-based routing for approvals and sign-offs on compliance items.
Automated Disclosure Generation: Automatically generates required client disclosures according to regulatory guidelines.
Automated Notifications: System sends alerts and reminders for upcoming or overdue compliance actions.
Bulk Action Processing: System can process compliance workflows for multiple clients simultaneously.
Compliance Calendar Management: Tracks and automates key dates and deadlines for compliance actions.
Escalation Triggers: Automatically escalates issues or breaches to compliance officers and key stakeholders.
Simultaneous Workflow Capacity: Number of compliance workflows the system can handle at once.
Task Assignment Automation: Automatically assigns compliance tasks to relevant parties based on roles, locations, or other rules.
Workflow Audit Logging: All automated actions and manual interventions are logged for later review.
Workflow Customization: Ability to design and modify custom compliance workflows.
Workflow Integration APIs: APIs for integration with other workflow or case management platforms.

Regulatory Compliance Systems features explained

for Compliance and Risk Management