I’m Not a Financial Broker or Hedge Fund Manager; Will I Be Impacted by New Financial Regulations?

By Steve Hammett
BroadPoint Technologies

As the number of financial scams explodes this year, federal regulators are making fresh moves to toughen protections for investors.
They come too late to safeguard customers of Sarasota hedge fund operator Arthur Nadel or massive Ponzi scammer Bernard Madoff.
But the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, stung by criticism that it failed to uncover Madoff and other pyramid schemes, now wants to force most investment advisers to submit to surprise exams by outside auditors.
Public anger over Madoff, Nadel, AIG and other financial blunders has sparked the Obama administration to seek some of the most sweeping changes to the financial regulatory system since the 1930s.  Although most if these efforts will be focused on the financial services industry, spillover from FASB and AICPA impacting GAAP and the accounting world in general is inevitable.
So what does this mean for the financial professional who has to be responsible for the accounting, expenses, business intelligence and strategic direction of her organization?  Add additional compliance to your list of responsibilities, even if you are not a publically traded company or even a large organization. 
Such entities as the Securities and Exchange Commission and Public Company Accounting Oversight Board will be front and center in the effort to ramp up regulation. Expected outcomes tied to the incoming Obama Administration include increased scrutiny of financial institutions coupled with more strict accounting procedures.
Recently-heard political rhetoric offers more than hints at what's coming. Such comments as "outdated and weak regulatory system and failure of regulators to adequately police the markets" no doubt will set the tone of efforts that ultimately will ramp up reporting and tracking requirements of companies throughout the country.
This scenario makes an extremely strong case for preventive medicine-in the form of accounting software with the power and resources to stay on top of expected regulations. In turn, this will help prevent small and mid-sized businesses nationwide from being crushed beneath the weight of new measures as they are enacted.
How does one become compliant when we don't even know how increased regulation will impact our corporate books or our organizations?
Users of Microsoft Dynamics GP already have the tools to meet challenges posed by increasing accounting regulation.  Among the ways GP will help in the coming days are:
1.    Putting into place stronger processes and procedures that will make compliance with new regulations more of a natural.
2.    Use the compliance features of Dynamic GP to enforce these processes and procedures
3.    Outside of the accounting department, using SharePoint workflow to supplement and enforce business processes
4.    Allowing audit trails and other security features to run and monitor them
The bad news is that changes are a-coming to your already busy world; the good news is that you should already own the tools to manage this change and remain in compliance with most of the new regulations, procedures and rules coming down the pike.

For more information please call Elaine Crooks at (301) 634-2463 See more from Steve Hammett at BroadPoint Tech Topics

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