Skilled Person and Regulator Commissioned Reviews

Kroll partners with regulators and firms worldwide to deliver comprehensive skilled person reports, address risks and resume to business as usual. We streamline processes, allowing firms to tackle challenges, ensure compliance, and prioritize their core business.

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A skilled person or regulator commissioned independent review can be daunting for a firm as it invariably means an issue has arisen and there has been a breakdown in communication or understanding between a firm and its regulator.

We work with regulators and firms in many countries to perform skilled person reviews, delivering reports in the UK and across EMEA, in APAC and the U.S. (often also referred to as Compliance Monitorships). In the UK and the UAE, we are officially appointed to the Skilled Person Panel by the local regulators.

Skilled Person Review

Skilled person reports, or regulator commissioned independent reviews, are a tool used by regulators globally to appoint independent experts to conduct thematic reviews of regulated businesses, typically assessing areas of concern within a firm or specifically targeted to collect, analyze and verify information.

They are used for five main purposes:

To diagnose risks
To monitor identified risks
To prevent or reduce risks from occurring and escalating
To remediate risks appropriately where they have occurred
To provide practical and proportionate recommendations to address those risks

Our approach to skilled person reviews is focused on delivering an outcome that addresses the firm’s issues, makes proportionate and workable recommendations and restores the regulator’s confidence. These reviews vary in nature and include assessments of the adequacy and effectiveness of a firm’s control frameworks, testing their application of policies and procedures and confirming that remedial work has been implemented.

Each skilled person review is unique; however, our guiding principles are always to:

Work with the firm and regulator to build a strong understanding of the firm’s business environment and the context for the review from the outset, so that we deliver a tailored, cost-effective and proportionate review
Conduct a robust and efficient process to established timeframes and budgets that minimizes disruption to the firm’s business
Regularly discuss our emerging findings with the firm and regulator throughout the process so there are no surprises in the draft and final reports

Perform the review in an open, proactive and independent manner, with timely communication with both the firm’s stakeholders and the regulator
Produce an independent, objective report based on evidence and our strong technical competence, containing practical recommendations

We are also appointed by regulators to act as a skilled person to support the regulators’ own investigations into individuals and regulated firms (such as an s166 review for the FCA). This is typically where an enforcement action is underway. Often, these involve detailed forensic analysis of large volumes of information where we lend our technical subject matter expertise into specific regulatory areas.

An important aspect of our work where we are appointed by a regulator due to our specialist technical knowledge, is to ensure there is transfer of our skill and competencies to the other parties in the review. The intention is to both identify and resolve any issues that may exist but also to prevent re-occurrence through training and up-skilling.

Regulator Commissioned Review

Where we are not appointed as the skilled person, we can provide assistance to firms both in advance of a regulator commissioned review and once one has been completed as we can help firms:

To prepare for a skilled person review through a health-check or diagnostic review
To support efforts to achieve an efficient and effective review during the process
With remediation where the skilled person has made recommendations, we can assist in the implementation of the remedial work

Skilled person reviews place material demands on a firm’s resources, at all levels, at each of these stages. Critically, this does not end once the review is complete as it is frequently the failure to conclude the post-review remediation to the satisfaction of the regulator that leads to follow-on reviews and potentially sanctions. Our involvement shares this burden, allows firms to conclude the review and the resultant remediation and focus on getting on with their business.