Onsite inspections of Management Companies and Corporate Trustees 2016

The conduct of on-site inspections, constant monitoring and follow ups since 2012 to date resulted in significant improvements in several areas such as corporate governance, compliance culture, risk assessments, internal controls, business conduct, etc.

It has been noted that all Management Companies/Corporate Trustees have either adopted measures or improved their existing compliance frameworks, as follows:

• Appointment of Compliance Officers and establishment of adequately resourced compliance departments, commensurating with the size of the business/clients, that oversee compliance for the entire operations of Management Companies/Corporate Trustees;
• Setting up of important committees of the Board such as compliance committee, clients’ on-boarding committee, audit and risk committee, corporate governance committee, etc., where matters relating to the conduct of business are discussed and decisions are properly minuted;
• Improved risk management practices starting with risk profiling of clients based on several attributes, proper validation by senior management, compliance officers, money laundering reporting officers and ultimately the directors, undertaking appropriate risk mitigating measures and constant follow ups;
• Improved compliance monitoring, including transaction monitoring;
• Regular training of money laundering reporting officers and other officers dealing with clients in areas such as detecting suspicious transactions and other abnormal activities, reporting to the Financial Intelligence Unit, etc. 

The FSC Mauritius also takes regulatory sanctions against Management Companies/Corporate Trustees which fail to adopt remedial measures or where measures taken are inadequate. These cases are referred to the Enforcement unit for relevant enforcement actions. Enforcement actions are published on the FSC website.