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Will RegTech and Digitisation Transform Compliance and Operations?

More than half of respondents in a recent survey we ran said they still rely on spreadsheets to share regulation and regulatory opinion in their organisation.  This shows the challenges of working with regulation that still prevail in compliance and operations departments within financial firms, despite the emerging prevalence of RegTech.

In a constantly evolving world where technology is part of every aspect of our lives, regulation is no exception. RegTech is expanding all the time and while many systems are currently isolated, going forward we will see RegTech systems interacting with one another in an automated fashion in order to provide a more efficient and competitive way of working.

“RegTech is growing at a phenomenal rate and it’s going to empower the industry.”

Dario Crispini, CEO, Kaizen Reporting

With manual processes largely removed and digital rules and interpretations accessible across systems, RegTech will ultimately help improve accuracy and confidence in the compliance of an organisation.

During a recent webinar discussion between Single Rulebook and Kaizen Reporting we discussed the potential transformation that RegTech and digitisation may bring about in compliance and operations.

We also conducted two audience polls to canvas opinion on how the industry is currently working with regulation and regulatory text today:

Poll 1 Question & Answer:

How do you currently share regulation and regulatory opinion within your organisation?

  • Spreadsheets  (51% of responses)
  • Email  (38% of responses)
  • Paper / hard copies  (7% of responses)
  • Software solution  (4% of responses)

Poll 2 Question & Answer:

What do you think is the average tenure of a regulatory advisor in your firm?

  • Less than a year  (19% of responses)
  • Between one and 2 years  (22% of responses)
  • Between 2 and 5 years  (48% of responses)
  • More than 5 years  (11% of responses)

Both poll results provided valuable insights into how the challenges of regulation remain within compliance and operations. Using spreadsheets and email to share regulation and regulatory interpretations lead to poor governance and no audit trail. Spreadsheets have to evolve as the regulation evolves and emails are easily lost when someone leaves a firm.

The retention of regulatory experts within an organisation poses a unique challenge itself. As people move on, so does the regulatory knowledge and interpretation of rules that they have accumulated. This can be a real loss and a real challenge for both Compliance professionals and the organisation as a whole.

“With an integrated system, not only can regulatory knowledge and interpretations be retained, they can also be embedded into a firm’s own systems, policies and controls.”

Wim Nelen, CEO, Single Rulebook

If you wish you receive more information on this topic, please feel free to contact us.