Get to know more about Iain Duke-Richardet, Hearsay’s new Compliance Strategy Principal. Find out what a typical day is like, his take on RegBI, predictions for the industry, and more!
We’re thrilled that Iain Duke-Richardet has joined the Hearsay team as Compliance Strategy Principal! Iain joins us from Accenture’s Regulatory & Compliance Practice where he helped guide clients on a range of issues including regulatory change and reporting, technology-related legal and regulatory issues, cybersecurity, privacy, and more. Prior to his time at Accenture, he spent a decade in our customers’ shoes (some of that time literally) as a compliance leader at global financial services firms, including RBC Capital Markets and Goldman Sachs & Co.
We’re excited by the ideas and expertise Iain brings to the table, so we sat down for a Q&A to help you get to know him.
William: Welcome to Hearsay, Iain. Let’s start with an easy one – what is your typical day like?
Iain: I spend a lot of time with Hearsay customers sharing best practices and guidance to leverage Hearsay as a key part of their compliance strategy, including providing advice on governance, change management, technology infrastructure, and any other area of compliance and supervision that matters to their business.
I am also entrenched with industry regulators such as FINRA, IIROC, the FCA and others, as well as deepening relationships with trade groups like SIFMA and LIMRA. You’ll see me engaged in thought-leadership discussions, which is essential as I articulate Hearsay’s perspective on compliance.
Finally, the balance of my time is spent collaborating with Hearsay’s Product teams to continually infuse compliance into our solutions both as they are engineered today, as well as how the product offering evolves.
William: What’s your initial impression so far? Anything that surprised you?
Iain: That’s a good question. From working with Hearsay for many years I knew that compliance formed a foundational element of the platform. What’s been heartening to discover in the first few weeks is the commitment Hearsay has to developing in-house expertise. We’re building what I call a “Practice of Practitioners,” and that really distinguishes us; only Hearsay draws on a team with deep industry expertise to guide product development, regulatory interpretation and program support. So it’s been great to meet the team and recognize the depth of industry and compliance knowledge that is embedded throughout the firm.
William: What trends are you seeing in the industry lately?
Iain: The global pandemic has resulted in the emergence of new engagement models among our customer base, typically in an effort to replace the in-person connection. This has also been occuring in the context of a work-from-home environment. This has meant that compliance processes have been challenged and, in some cases, strained such that we have seen a number of adjustments being made to how supervision is performed, with an increased focus on efficiency. Among the trends are strategies to shift review between the lines of defense, to lower spikes in items to be reviewed, to expand the use of existing messaging channels, and to rapidly deploy compliance controls that enable the use of new messaging channels.
William: Now let’s move on to a hot topic—RegBI. What have you learned from our customers regarding Reg BI? What is the traction for becoming compliant with these customers?
Iain: Many customers are well on their way to establishing the controls that will enable them to meet the new standard of conduct established by the rule. Many have spent time assessing and updating their business practices, reviewing and augmenting their policies and procedures where necessary, and evaluating their compliance controls.
Additionally, it’s important to recognize that Reg BI sets forth a standard of conduct that is ongoing. Firms are not just focusing on being compliant by the immediate deadline but rather are looking at building a foundation for ongoing compliance. Policies, procedures, technology, governance—the entire compliance ecosystem will need to be regularly evaluated against this framework to validate that firms are continuing to meet the new standard.
William: What are some of your overall thoughts on where compliance needs to head in the next year and 5 years? What are your thoughts on any of the other pending compliance or regulations that may be put into effect?
Iain: Over the next year, I expect to see the ongoing development of Privacy regulation, primarily as individuals and companies increasingly leverage the right to be forgotten under the CCPA, but also as other States design legislation of their own. I also expect there to be additional clarity to the FCC’s TCPA following the Supreme Court hearing in May. Both will pressure customers and their compliance organizations to have clear policies and well articulated processes to address the demands of these regulatory developments.
Over the next five years, I expect compliance organizations to double-down on two primary areas of focus. The first is to manage the continued pressure on the cost of compliance. Organizations seeking to optimize the cost of their operations have moved on from areas where gains were simpler (e.g., technology) to other areas, including compliance. Compliance leadership must exercise the levers available to it, such as functional organization (e.g., is Compliance solely conducting compliance activities?) and cost rationalization (e.g., technology, expense management, subscription based processes). Secondly, and relatedly, to what extent can technology be leveraged to simplify compliance tasks through machine learning, natural language processing, and automation. This is already underway within leading compliance organizations where systems have been upgraded to incorporate such advances, but I expect the next five years to see this continue and proliferate through the majority of compliance functions.
William: Let’s end on an inspirational note; what excites you about Hearsay’s vision?
Iain: While on the surface one may look at Hearsay and see a solution for marketing, for distribution, and for advisors and agents, in helping deliver omni-channel outcomes, Hearsay truly puts the compliance user-experience at the forefront. We’re passionate about making life simple for compliance teams. So as our customers empower advisors and agents with more channels to deliver outcomes across the digital customer journey, we’re simultaneously arming compliance teams with tools like universal supervision across multiple channels – including reporting of calls and text messages – to simplify supervision and review by offering a complete, contextual view of the client relationship. This helps teams administer programs more effectively across channels via Hearsay’s unified platform for maximum scale and efficiency.
William: Thank you, Iain. We’re excited to have you at Hearsay and eager to hear more from you!
Iain: Likewise, and stay tuned for more from me and the Hearsay compliance team as the year goes on.
