With compliance and regulatory reforms on the horizon, tech firms respond

Fears abound about the potential for change in the regulatory and compliance arena. InvestmentNews reported this month that when asked to name their major business concern, 42% of 501 respondents in TD Ameritrade Holding Corp.'s latest RIA Sentiment Survey cited regulatory change — up almost 25% from their responses in the poll taken three months earlier. In lock step with these concerns, Gladiator Technology, a managed-security-services provider for financial institutions, launched The Compliance Center, an online repository for regulatory compliance documents and IT compliance information. The Compliance Center is hosted within Gladiator's existing customer portal and provides secure electronic policy delivery and storage, as well as access to educational materials and guidance information in paperless format. In a similar vein, Wolters Kluwer Financial Services has landed E.K. Riley Investments, a Seattle-based investment firm and broker-dealer, as a client for its Policies and Procedures for Broker-Dealers platform. This system, managed by a firm's compliance officer, assembles, records and updates written supervisory procedures manuals that are required by regulators, including the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc., the New York Stock Exchange, the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and USA Patriot Act regulations. It helps guide the assembly of manuals and allows compliance officers to integrate a firm's existing content. Management and editing rights can be assigned to multiple editors. See also our recent story on compliance technology and consulting services. For more information visit Gladiator Technology and Wolters Kluwer Financial Services.