FreePint Launches New Series: Compliance in Context
Jinfo Blog

By Andrew Lucas

Abstract

FreePint's work on tackling topics essential to info pros continues with The FreePint Topic Series: Compliance in Context. Andrew Lucas, the series editor, introduces the main themes ranging from keeping up-to-date with regulation changes to choosing the right tool for regulatory compliance, and explains how you can get involved in the series which will run from September - October 2013.

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For most organisations compliance is not optional; the cost of failing to comply with ethical and regulatory requirements can be very high both in terms of fines and of reputational damage. The consequence of this regulatory imperative for those organisations is the need to invest in the information and tools to meet their obligations.

Increased Regulation

The first two decades of the 21^st century have seen repeated shocks to the global financial system and an increasing fear of the impact of both domestic and international terrorism, which has led to a raft of new regulations, such as the US Patriot Act, designed to increase transparency and to inhibit the flow of funds to support illegal activities. At the same time, regulators and law enforcement agencies have continued their efforts to combat financial crime, such as fraud, money laundering and tax evasion. Anti-corruption legislation, for example, has been introduced across a number of jurisdictions, including the 2010 Bribery Act in the UK, whilst the US authorities continue to vigorously pursue cases under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

Compliance requirements have also spread beyond the highly regulated industries of finance and insurance to encompass new sectors such as real estate and law. It has never been more important for organisations to be able to identify politically exposed persons (PEPs) and to have access to up-to-date sanction lists.

Increased Burdens for Companies

These new regulations quite rightly seek to control money-laundering and prevent corruption in foreign trade, but the consequence is that they have vastly increased the ethical and compliance burden faced by companies across all sectors. The Thomson Reuters 2013 Cost of Compliance Survey (download PDF) found that over 80% of compliance professionals are expecting the volume of regulatory information to continue to increase in the current year, whilst 33% of those surveyed expected their compliance budgets to be either reduced or stay the same as last year.

New FreePint Series to Help Navigate the Compliance Complexity

Navigating the ever-growing complexity of the regulatory framework and ensuring that appropriate due diligence has been carried out is an increasingly challenging task. Having the right information and tools to understand and manage the ethical and regulatory risks faced by companies and other organisations is vital.

The FreePint Topic Series: Compliance in Context: When Information is Essential is designed to help information professionals in organisations with compliance requirements by looking at some of the key issues which impact their work. Information from the series will be provided in the form of articles, product reviews, comparisons, checklists and webinars.

Those engaging with this series will be gain up-to-date knowledge of the compliance landscape and how best to support the information components of an organisation's regulatory and compliance requirements.

Topics to be Tackled

Articles currently being commissioned include:

• Keeping up-to-date with regulation/changes
• The regulatory environment in key jurisdictions
• Choosing the right tool for regulatory compliance
• Defining and measuring value/ROI of investment in compliance-related products
• Serving a compliance officer as an internal client – what does their workflow look like and what are their information needs?
• Product/vendor map: who is doing what in the regulatory space?

We would love to get feedback on these topics. Equally, if there are any other compliance-related topics which would be of interest to you, please contact me at andrew.lucas@freepint.com.

Editor's Note: Compliance in Context

This article is part of the FreePint Topic Series: Compliance in Context, which runs from September to October 2013. Register your interest, and you'll get pre-notification of when registration opens for any webinars in this series, as well as a free copy of the FreePint Report: Buyer's Guide on Regulatory Compliance when we publish in October.

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