Every year the genial, diminutive Ben Goh of the Compliance Register doles out the most famous set of compliance awards in the UK and he always puts on a good show.

Every year the genial, diminutive Ben Goh of the Compliance Register doles out the most famous set of compliance awards in the UK and he always puts on a good show. This year was no exception, with Ben in cracking form as lead singer and compère at the Lancaster Hotel in London. His rendition of a karaoke classic popular in the offshore centres of East Asia wowed the compliance glitterati before the serious business of the awards began. These were allocated as follows.

Section A for 'excellence'

• Excellence in recruitment services - Compliance Professionals.
• Excellence in financial crime and enforcement work - KPMG. ("Can this be right?" mused the master of ceremonies out loud as the popular song Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious filled the hall.)
• Excellence in regulatory consultancy - PwC stepped up to receive their samurai statuette to the tune of Zippedy Doo-Dah.
• Excellence in regulatory training – for some reason there was universal laughter at the moment when the Deloitte man stepped up to claim his award, although he had done nothing funny to prompt it.
• Excellence in regulatory advice and support – the Bovill Group. A lady representative claimed the prize to the strains of Whistle While You Work.
• Excellence in legal and regulatory services – Dentons.
• Excellence in customer service – Linedata.
• Excllence in financial crime prevention – Brian Dilley of KPMG took more than a minute to come to the podium but Ben Goh filled in the time with his dancing.

Section B for regulated firms 

• Best implementation of European Resuscitation Council or ERC requirements – Best Practice IFA Group.
• Best consulting firm for investigations and enforcement – a lady in black pyjamas from TCC stepped up to the strains of 'Suspicious Minds'.
• Best consultancy/law firm to do with conduct risk – PwC. Runner up – Deloitte.
• Best consultancy/law firm for regulatory advice – Eversheds. Runner up – TCC.
• Best consultancy/law firm for financial crime – Dentons. Runner up – Bovill.

Section C for service providers

• Most innovative solutions provider – UnaVista. Runner up – Vibrations.
• Best technical solutions provider for asset management – Linedata. Runner up – Finessa.
• Best technological solutions provider for regulatory reporting – UnaVista. Runner up – Linedata.
• Best technological solutions provider for financial crime – AML Analytics. Steve Hancock, the founder of the Institute of Money-Laundering Prevention Officers or IMLPO, stepped up to receive his prize to the sound of 'Stayin' Alive' by the Bee Gees. Runner up – Oracle.
• Best technological solutions provider for EMIR – UnaVista. Ben Goh danced to the Bee Gees' song 'Night Fever' while someone from the winning firm came up.
• Best head-hunting firm for boardroom appointments – Correlate Search. Runner up – Demos Associates.
• Best recruitment firm – Black Swan Group. Runner up – Correlate Search.
• Best outsourcing services firm – Grant Thornton. The winners claimed their prize to the strains of 'Shaking All Over' by Johnny Kidd and the Pirates.
• Best face-to-face training firm – Eukleia Training (founded by Patrick Thompson, formerly of Hyperion Training and, briefly, Complinet). Runner up – TCC.
• Best training firm for clearing – Skillcast. Runner up – Complyport.

Section D – teams

• Best compliance team among regulated firms – Standard Bank Offshore. Runner up – Best Practice IFA Group. The winners stepped up to tune from Thunderbirds.
• Best client services firm, no matter what the sector – Finessa. Runner-up – Grant Thornton.
• Best recruitment services team - Correlate Search. Runner up – Black Swan Group.
• Best editorial team – Wolters Kluwer.

Section E - individuals

• Best head of compliance – James Lasenby of Best Practice IFA Group. Runner-up – Duncan Taylor of Quilter.
• Best head of financial crime – Jay Pavitt of China Construction Bank. Runner up – Ben Hur of Credit Agricole, who is also the head and founder of MLROs.com.
• Best compliance officer for conduct risk – Yen Chang of Quilter Cheviot.
• Best financial crime consultant – David Blackmore, who will be writing for Compliance Matters soon.
• Best compliance trainer – Louise Clark of Deloitte. Runner up – Emma Radmore of Dentons.
• Best compliance training programme designer – Emma Radmore of Dentons.
• Best compliance consultant, conduct risk – Steve Blackbourn.
• Best consultant for regulatory strategy – Jason Wintle of TCC. Runner up - Louise Clark of Deloitte.
• Best regulatory lawyer – Emma Radmore of Dentons. Runner up – James Smethurst of Freshfields.
• Best recruiter – Victoria Scott-Villars of Danos Associates.
• Best contribution to compliance and/or financial crime practice – Peter Beales, AFME.
• Best chief executive/managing director – Joanne Smith of TCC. Runner up – Ben Blackett-Ord of the Bovill Group.
• Hall of Fame Lifetime Achievement – Sir Paul Ruddock. The career of this doyen of the hedge fund industry proves that it is possible to have a rock-steady, fully compliant business and still do better than all your competitors. He was the co-founder and CEO of Lansdowne Partners, which has $17 billion assets under management. Now retired, he is the chairman of the Victoria & Albert Museum.

The awards were presented at lightning speed, with each drum-roll following hard on the heels of its predecessor. Once every winner had walked up the red carpet to receive his or her well-earned samurai figurine, the compliance officers proceeded to dance the night away. To contact the Compliance Register, an international compliance officers' and senior financial executives' organisation, go to http://www.compliancer.com.