Strengthening compliance monitoring

For any organisation, ensuring compliance is a constant balancing act. Larger investment fund managers have already established sizeable compliance teams and/or can leverage the support of a group compliance function. Therefore, they are more looking for ways to streamline compliance processes to gain more efficiency by reducing complexity and the associated cost. This will lead from a reactive to a proactive compliance function.

Small and medium size organisations, meanwhile, are subject to the same regulatory requirements as large ones yet operate with leaner teams and more limited resources.

This was the situation a compliance function of a Luxembourg-based Alternative Investment Fund Manager faced, operating in a fast-evolving regulatory environment covering AIFMD, MiFID-related distribution activities, AML/CTF obligations and CSSF circulars. While the organisation had a formally approved compliance monitoring plan, its execution relied heavily on spreadsheets, manual trackers and shared drives. Controls were documented in fragmented files; evidence collection was inconsistent, and reporting required significant manual consolidation before presentation to senior management and the board. This created two immediate challenges:

First, the organisation faced a resource constraint. Continuing to manage regulatory obligations as before would have required an investment disproportionate to the size of the business.  

Second, the workload related to the compliance monitoring plan stayed largely on the more junior compliance professionals. While highly capable, there was a lack of documentation standards and digital tools needed to independently manage regulatory monitoring, assess compliance risks, and demonstrate compliance in a way that would stand up to regulatory or audit scrutiny.

The compliance function sought a scalable, digital solution capable of supporting a multi-year monitoring programme while aligning with its specific regulatory perimeter.  

We worked closely with the client to implement the Compliance Control Hub, a digital solution designed to bring structure, consistency, and clarity to compliance monitoring.

The journey began with establishing a regulatory inventory, providing a clear view of all laws and regulations applicable to the client’s activities. From there, we supported the client in performing a risk assessment, helping them understand the potential impact of non‑compliance, including regulatory sanctions and reputational consequences.

Next, we helped map the client’s existing business processes as risk mitigation measures against regulatory requirements. This step proved critical in identifying gaps: areas where obligations existed, but processes or controls were not yet formalised.

To address this, the Compliance Control Hub provided a pre‑defined skeleton of controls, offering structured guidance on how to perform compliance controls within the monitoring plan. Rather than leaving junior team members to design controls from scratch, the platform guided them through a clear, task‑based approach, aligned with regulatory expectations.

Our team worked side by side with the client, ensuring consistency with existing methodologies and walking through controls together in practice. This hands‑on approach allowed the client team to build confidence while embedding the new way of working into their daily routines.  

The impact was felt quickly, both operationally and on a human level.

From a process perspective, the client moved from a largely manual, fragmented compliance approach to a structured, audit‑ready monitoring framework. Controls were performed more consistently, outcomes were documented more clearly, and reporting became easier to produce for management, auditors, and regulators.

While the first year involved performing more controls than before due to the increased visibility and completeness enforced by the Compliance Control Hub, the effort required was significantly reduced over time thanks to its structured nature.

Hence, the solution empowered more junior compliance professionals at the heart of the function. They were able to work independently to perform controls that would previously have required senior oversight, with the guidance embedded in the platform and our ongoing support. "Even if compliance team members are not that experienced, they can work quite independently," explained Nicole, "which is a real release for the compliance officer."

For the organisation as a whole, the PwC Compliance Control Hub delivered what smaller entities need most: a way to stay compliant without over‑investing in back‑office resources.