The compliance challenge
SEC examiners expect systematic controls, not hope.
An SEC-registered investment adviser managing multiple fund strategies — ETFs and hedge funds focused on real estate — faced a critical compliance gap. Their core strength was disciplined research and capital allocation. But operationally, they had no systematic way to detect and document trade conflicts across their different fund structures.
Without a formal system, compliance relied on manual processes: comparing trades across books manually, maintaining spreadsheets, and documenting reviews in email. As assets under management grew and trading volume increased, this approach became unsustainable — operationally and from a regulatory perspective.
"Build a production-ready platform in weeks, not months. Engineering couldn't spare 6–9 months, and they didn't want to divert development capacity from other priorities."
Delivery timeline
Three weeks. Four stages. One working system.
Platform foundation
- RESTful API with versioning, Entra ID auth, automatic audit logging
- Frontend dashboard with component library
- SQL Server database with automated schema management
- CI/CD pipeline with multi-environment deployment
- Real-time monitoring and error tracking
Unified trade data
- Template-driven ingestion — auto-detects file format and source
- Automated daily syncs from ETF system
- Automated daily syncs from hedge fund system
- Self-service upload for manual and exception trades
- Real-time dashboard showing ingestion status, row counts, issues
Conflict detection
- Automated trade flagging engine with configurable rules and schedules
- Conflict dashboard with drill-down, filtering, and detail views
- Structured justification workflow — compliance officers document reviews in the system
- Complete audit trail: who flagged, who reviewed, what justification, when resolved
- Email alerts and CSV/Excel export for SEC filings
Refinement with the team
- Alert email format updated based on compliance team preference
- Trades grouped by fund first, then position
- "Flagged for review" status added for batch processing
- Weekly summary export added for audit committee
"What normally takes 6–9 months of internal development happened in three weeks. The difference wasn't luck or heroic effort."
It was building on a platform that solved the foundational problems — architecture, security, data integration, workflow orchestration — that typically consume months.
The outcomes
What each stakeholder gained.
Chief Compliance Officer
- Systematic conflict detection with documented process for SEC examiners
- Audit trail for every review decision: who reviewed, when, what rationale
- Confidence the firm's controls are defensible and audit-ready
- No more email-based conflict tracking or spreadsheet reconciliation
CFO
- Compliance team freed from manual reconciliation to focus on judgment
- Operational efficiency: hours per week recovered from reconciliation
- Platform foundation ready to support additional compliance automation
Chief Operating Officer
- Compliance infrastructure scales with asset growth and new strategies
- Operational backbone solid and audit-ready
- System the entire organization understands and can evolve independently
Engineering Team
- Delivered in weeks, not months — no multi-month team disruption
- System they understand and control completely
- Time freed up for other strategic projects
