Part 6 - Best Practice Guide to Managing Compliance of New Financial Promotion Materials

  This Guide is part of our Best Practice Guide to Managing Compliance of New Financial Promotion Materials.

If you have not already done so, we recommend that you first read the Introduction Section of this Guide. That explains the purpose of the Guide covers and how to use it.

Purpose of the Publishing / Distribution Activity

The business purpose of the Publishing / Distribution activity is to … use as effectively as possible and in line with any campaign, the assets and content which have been created and approved.

Marketing and Sales (or Distribution) are normally responsible for publishing or distributing most of the content that has been created. The Communications team will also publish or distribute content.

Compliance Related Objectives

The main content compliance related objectives for this activity are:

1. Ensure that any content that is being used – i.e. published or distributed – is compliant

2. Identify and understand any negative impact associated with the way that the compliance related requirements have been met, from:

   1. Prospects and clients

   2. Partners

   3. Marketing

   4. Sales

Best Practice – Key Elements and Potential Solutions

This section lists the key elements of best practice for this activity and shows for each element:

1. Which level of best practice they are part of – Standard or Advanced

2. The solutions that are likely to enable the best practice element to be achieved. (More information about these solutions, can be found in this guide - 7 Solutions That Help Achieve Best Practice)

Best Practice Element no. 1

Compliance Monitoring is used to regularly check at least 1% of all content which is being used

Level:

• Standard

Potential solution(s):

• Work Management System

• Digital Asset Management System

• Compliance Checking System

Best Practice Element no. 2

Compliance Monitoring is used to regularly check at least 5% of all content which is being used

Level:

• Advanced

Potential solution(s):

• Work Management System

• Digital Asset Management System

• Compliance Checking System

Best Practice Element no. 3

Compliance Monitoring have a fast and easy way of:

• Accessing or determining the compliance requirements for any content item

• Checking if the content meets the compliance requirements

Level:

• Standard

Potential solution(s):

• Compliance Briefing

• Compliance Checking System

Best Practice Element no. 4

Compliance Monitoring have an automated or semi-automated way of:

• Accessing or determining the compliance requirements for any content item

• Checking if the content meets the compliance requirements

Level:

• Advanced

Potential solution(s):

• Compliance Briefing

• Compliance Checking System

• Digital Asset Management System

Best Practice Element no. 5

For any situation where it is found that non-compliant content is being used, that:

• The ability to use that content is immediately blocked (including, withdrawing any content from websites and social media)

• The issue is reported to Risk

• The reason(s) why non-compliant content was able to be used, is investigated and corrective action is taken

Level:

• Standard

• Advanced

Potential solution(s):

• Work Management System

• Digital Asset Management System

Best Practice Element no. 6

There is a process for regularly obtaining and analysing feedback regarding any negative impact associated with the way that the compliance related requirements have been met (and results are provided to Heads of Marketing and Compliance)

Level:

• Standard

• Advanced

Potential solution(s):

• Operating Model

Get a PDF version of the full Guide

We will be happy to email you a full version of this Guide (in PDF format)

Benefits of Achieving Best Practice

Overall, achieving content compliance best practice for the Publishing / Distribution activity is likely to:

• Ensure that there is an accurate view of:

  • How much content in use, is likely to be non-compliant

  • The reasons why any content is non-compliant and the potential risk / impact

  
  

• Reduce the risk of non-compliant content:

  • Being created in future

  • Continuing to be used

    
    

• Provide the organisation with information about the actual or perceived negative impact associated with content compliance

The tables below, give a high-level view of the type and scale of benefits that can be typically realised by achieving a best practice position.

Note. The scale of benefits to be achieved, will depend on:

1. How far the current way of working is from the best practice way of working

2. Which level of best practice is achieved – Standard or Advanced

Standard Level

Advanced Level

Do You Have Best Practice?

The following are common indicators that best practice is NOT in place:

• It is difficult / time consuming to find existing assets / content that have been published / distributed

• There is no standardised process / practice for managing expiry dates

• There is no or very limited proactive compliance monitoring

• Audits regularly identify cases where non-compliant content is being used

• There is no process to identify and assess any negative impact associated with the way that the compliance related requirements have been met

If your organisation has any of the above, then it is likely that you are not operating to best practice.

We can help you to:

1. Define what best practice is appropriate for your organisation

2. Identify and quantify the benefits that will be realised by achieving best practice

3. Identify the solution(s) that will enable you to achieve that best practice

4. Build the business case for any investment that is needed

You may also be interested in our services shown below. These were primarily designed to help with content creation and content approval but, can just as usefully be used for compliance monitoring

• Compliance Briefing Service

• Content Checking Service 

If you would like to find out more about how we can help ...

Contact Us

Other Activities

Click on the buttons below to view our best practice guides for the other activities involved in the creation of new financial promotion content.

Disclaimer

The information is this guide represents Athena's views based on our experience and also based on input that we have received from a range of different people involved in both creating and approving financial promotion material.

We welcome any thoughts or suggestions regarding:

• What "best practice" is or isn't

• How best to achieve "best practice"

• Anything that you would like to be included in the guide

Copyright Athena Know-How Ltd 2025