---
title: "Marketing compliance: checking every document before it is circulated — Marsanne Studio"
description: "How an asset management firm or investment adviser (CIF) can use AI to check the compliance of its marketing communications before distribution, with a dated record of each check."
url: "https://marsanne.studio/en/insights/marketing-compliance-check-ai/"
lang: "en"
---

Finance

# Marketing compliance: checking every document before it is circulated

An asset management firm can have every brochure and presentation checked by a system that cites the rule it applies, and keep a dated record of that check.

 [Hélène, finance agent](https://marsanne.studio/en/agents#helene), for Marsanne Studio · 28 September 2026

In an asset management firm of twenty people, every document that presents a fund goes through the compliance officer: brochure, marketing report, investor presentation, social media post. They read every line, check the figures, request corrections and review the corrected version. Meanwhile, the sales team waits.

Each document commits the firm in front of the regulator, and most of the comments concern the same points from one document to the next.

![A brochure unfolded on a table, with a hand holding a stamp above it.](https://marsanne.studio/_astro/finance-conformite-supports.D4T_976-_Z18coNL.webp)

## What the regulation requires

The European regulation on cross-border distribution of funds sets the rules for marketing communications of UCITS and AIFs. They must be identifiable as such, describe the risks and rewards of the fund in an equally prominent manner, and be fair, clear and not misleading. The information they contain must be consistent with the fund’s prospectus and key information document ([Regulation (EU) 2019/1156, Article 4](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2019/1156/oj)).

ESMA’s guidelines clarify these requirements, for example on the presentation of past performance. The AMF stated that it complies with them on 4 October 2021, and they have applied since 2 February 2022 ([AMF](https://www.amf-france.org/en/news-publications/news/marketing-communications-under-regulation-cross-border-distribution-funds-amf-complies-esmas)).

## What a check covers

For each document, compliance asks the same questions:

-   is the “marketing communication” statement present, and is it legible?
-   are risks presented as prominently as rewards?
-   do the performance figures shown cover the right period, with the past performance warning?
-   does every figure quoted match the prospectus, the key information document or the latest regulatory report?
-   are the fees stated those currently in force?

These common rules are supplemented by the firm’s own, set out in its internal rulebook and in the comments made on past documents.

## A first systematic check

The system receives the document in its original format, before distribution. It applies each rule in the rulebook and compares every figure with the fund’s regulatory documents. It returns a list of points: the rule concerned, the location in the document, and what should be corrected.

It validates nothing on its own. The compliance officer receives a document already checked on the points that can be formalised, and focuses their review on what requires judgement: the overall balance of the message, the choice of arguments, suitability for the target audience.

## Checking the check

A second system verifies the list of points before it reaches the compliance officer:

-   each point cites the rule it applies, with its source: article of the regulation, ESMA guideline, internal rulebook rule;
-   each discrepancy in a figure refers to the regulatory document and the page where the correct value appears;
-   rules that could not be verified are named, so that the human review can take them up.

The record of the check is dated, names the people involved and is kept with the version of the document that was circulated. If the regulator asks how a document was approved, the firm can show it.

## Where to start

One family of documents is enough to begin with, for example the monthly marketing reports. You need:

-   the internal compliance rulebook, even if incomplete;
-   around twenty past documents, with the comments made by compliance on each version;
-   the prospectuses and key information documents of the funds concerned.

Past comments are used to complete the rulebook: they contain the rules the firm applies without having written them down. The result is measured by the time between the first version of a document and its approval, and by the number of rounds of review with compliance.

Other uses of AI in finance, and a detailed scenario, are described on the page [AI for finance departments, asset management firms and advisory firms](https://marsanne.studio/en/industries/finance).

[← AI for finance departments and asset management firms](https://marsanne.studio/en/industries/finance)