Firms grapple with new CASS audit standards

A Freedom of Information request has revealed how firms are coping with higher audit standards for their client assets procedures. Nicola Green comments on the trickier areas of CASS rules where financial services firms struggle time and time again, and suggests how to prepare for your next audit.

Nicola Green is a managing consultant with regulatory specialists Bovill, where she mainly works with firms in the wealth management and banking sectors. Contact her on ngreen@bovill.com.

It’s now more than two years since the publication of the Financial Reporting Council standards on ‘Providing Assurance on Client Assets to the Financial Conduct Authority’ and we’re at a point where all firms should have experienced at least one audit under the new standards. So this seems like a good opportunity to look at what we’ve learned over the last couple of years and consider how firms can best prepare themselves for future audits.