France's Financial Markets Authority (AMF) published the key takeaways from a SPOT (Supervision des Pratiques Opérationnelle et Thématique) inspection campaign assessing the role and involvement of the compliance function in cross-cutting frameworks at four investment service providers active in investment banking. The review finds that compliance involvement varies across firms, with disciplinary processes generally well positioned but significant constraints on compliance’s ability to oversee remuneration arrangements. The AMF examined compliance involvement in staff knowledge and qualification controls, remuneration policy design and monitoring, disciplinary measures, and personal account dealing surveillance. Compliance is typically treated as the expert on the content and targeting of regulatory training, while remuneration oversight was identified as a weak point: although compliance is expected to advise the governing body before remuneration policies are validated, three of the four firms could not provide evidence that this advice was effectively delivered, and access to key data on variable remuneration was restricted in three of the four firms, creating a risk that compliance conclusions may be incorrect. The compliance function’s contribution to drafting disciplinary frameworks was limited, but it played a central role in analysing staff breaches; all firms operated a pre-approval regime for personal transactions requiring compliance sign-off, and most also ran ex post controls except one firm. The AMF also highlighted good practices (for example, treating late completion of mandatory training as a risk behaviour in annual assessments and using dedicated tools for pre-authorising personal transactions) and poor practices (including not offering AMF Certification to compliance staff and not ensuring compliance can verify that sanctions are properly recorded in human resources tracking tools). The AMF indicated that this SPOT synthesis will be followed by a second instalment covering other actors and additional themes.
France Autorite des marches financiers 2026-01-20
France's Financial Markets Authority publishes SPOT findings on investment service providers’ compliance functions and flags limits on remuneration oversight
France's Financial Markets Authority (AMF) released findings from a SPOT inspection of compliance functions at four investment service providers, highlighting variability in compliance involvement, particularly in remuneration oversight where three firms lacked evidence of compliance advice. The AMF noted good practices like treating late training completion as a risk and poor practices such as inadequate compliance verification of sanctions, with a follow-up report planned.