Objective
Ensure market-facing and client communications are factual, balanced, substantiated, approved and consistent with confidentiality restrictions, consistent with the approved Market Conduct & Trading Compliance Manual v1.1 sections 2.3, 3.3 and 5.
Control Activity
Compliance reviews marketing and promotions before release and verifies accuracy, balance, risks, fees, limitations, licensing representations and jurisdictional requirements. The detailed COMM controls govern approved language, restricted matters, released-version reconciliation, quarterly monitoring and correction. All advertising must be factual, balanced and capable of substantiation; claims of performance or benefits must be supported by verifiable data; marketing must avoid exaggerations, omissions or promises of guaranteed returns as these are misleading and non-compliant with financial promotion regulations; all communications must comply with applicable securities, consumer protection and financial promotion regulations in the jurisdictions where they are published; promotional materials must undergo Compliance review and approval before release to ensure accuracy and compliance (MCT 5.1). Communications relating to trades, execution, delays, restrictions or service availability must be fair, accurate and consistent with Bitkaya’s legal and regulatory obligations; where a transaction, withdrawal, settlement or onboarding step is delayed or cannot proceed because of legal, sanctions, safeguarding or compliance concerns, communication must be handled carefully and in accordance with applicable confidentiality and anti-tipping-off restrictions; staff must not explain, confirm or imply internal compliance conclusions in a way that would breach legal restrictions or compromise an ongoing review (MCT 5.2). Only designated and authorized employees may make official statements on behalf of Bitkaya via social platforms; employees must not use personal accounts to make statements that could be construed as representing Bitkaya’s official views, services or positions; sharing confidential information, speculative claims or unverified statements about Bitkaya or the digital asset market is strictly prohibited; Bitkaya reserves the right to monitor public communications for potential reputational or regulatory risks and will take action where necessary (MCT 5.3). Employees must not provide false, misleading or exaggerated statements about Bitkaya’s services, the risks of digital assets or potential returns; misrepresentation may also occur through omission such as failing to disclose significant risks, fees or limitations (MCT 3.3).
Evidence
- Expected evidence: Submitted and approved communication (with Compliance review and approval before release)
- Expected evidence: Claims substantiation and risk disclosures (verifiable data supporting performance or benefit claims)
- Expected evidence: Compliance comments and approval
- Expected evidence: Publication evidence
- Expected evidence: Correction, withdrawal or escalation
- Expected evidence: Social-media authorization records (designated authorized spokespersons; personal-use restrictions; prohibited-content enforcement)
- Expected evidence: Public-communication monitoring evidence (reputational or regulatory risk review and action)
- Expected evidence: Anti-tipping-off compliance (no internal compliance conclusions disclosed in breach of legal restrictions)
- Evidence location: source evidence in SYS-ECM-002 Compliance Reporting and Evidence Repository; target Hermes assessment record in Odoo under ISS-HERMES-001.
- Retention: according to the applicable approved policy and Bitkaya record-retention requirements.
- Testing method: sample published communications and trace them to substantiation, approval and the released version; verify accuracy, balance, risks, fees, limitations, licensing representations and jurisdictional requirements; confirm no exaggerations, omissions or guaranteed-return promises; confirm social-media statements are from authorized spokespersons only; confirm anti-tipping-off restrictions are respected.
- Testing frequency: before release with periodic public-communication review
Relationships
- Requirement: REQ-VASP-009 Provide Accurate Information Advertising and Client Disclosures
- Policy: POL-MCT-001 Market Conduct and Trading Compliance Manual
- Process: PRC-CPO-001 Client Protection and Operations
- Procedure: PROC-MCT-004 Review Market Communications Promotions and Disclosures
Assurance
Runtime effectiveness results are maintained in Odoo and assessed through the Hermes workflow tracked in ISS-HERMES-001. This note defines design, ownership, evidence expectations and testing method; it does not contain a manually maintained operation, evidence or overall effectiveness rating.
- Design status: implemented
History
- 2026-07-26: Normalized evidence metadata and separated design status from runtime effectiveness.
- 2026-07-26: Created from the approved MCT Manual version 1.1.
- 2026-07-26: Linked to the dedicated COMM control set and licensing-representation issue.