Quizzing Vendors on Compliance Tools & Future Strategies
Jinfo Blog

By Andrew Lucas

Abstract

Andrew Lucas, the series producer for the FreePint Topic Series: Compliance in Context looks at some of the themes that have emerged from the Q&A sessions conducted with a number of the leading compliance solutions vendors: Alacra, Bureau van Dijk, LexisNexis, Perfect Information and Thomson Reuters. He also highlights some of the latest articles in this series, including the move towards European banking union and a two part series on understanding Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) and their associated risks.

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The FreePint Topic Series: Compliance in Context is concluding this month with some fascinating insights into the compliance market from some of the leading compliance solution vendors. Sophie Alexander has conducted Q&A sessions with Gail Jewsbury, vice president of risk at Alacra, Mark Dunn, market planning manager of Business Information Solutions at LexisNexis and Jorge Montana, head of research and Know Your Customer/Anti-Money Laundering solutions at Perfect Information. Earlier in the series we also spoke to Neil Farquhar at Bureau van Dijk and Andrew Neblett at Thomson Reuters.

The Q&A sessions have explored a number of themes, including how the vendors differentiate themselves from their competitors, what they do to understand the workflow requirements of their users, and how customers should measure the ROI on compliance products. Taking a wider market view, we also asked the vendors about some of the big themes and issues they see developing in the market over the next three years, the technology innovations that are impacting the compliance market and their thoughts on the pace of regulatory change.

Increasing Pace of Regulatory Change

On the question of regulatory change, all the participants in the Q&A sessions agreed that the pace of regulatory change is continuing to increase. Gail Jewsbury at Alacra observes that “The volume, pace and cost of regulatory reform has never been higher and it has been a huge driver of change, with banking business models being impacted.” While Mark Dunn at Lexis Nexis observes that “There’s been a significant increase in the area of enforcement, particularly in the core markets and that’s set to continue.”

This theme was picked up in another article by Sophie Alexander on the proposed European banking union, Moving Closer to a European Banking Union, which looks at the consolidation of Europe’s fragmented banking sector through bringing together its banks under a single regulatory umbrella.

Coming soon, Chris Porter will be surveying the best way to stay up to date with compliance regulation in his feature on keeping up to date with regulatory changes.

Politically Exposed Persons

Meanwhile Jorge Montana at Perfect Information sees as one of the biggest challenges “getting businesses to understand that compliance regulations are not only required by law but this is something that is going to help them in the long run". Jorge recounts hearing from the CEO of a very successful business that “he’d never heard of PEPs and didn’t feel it was of concern to his business”.

Understanding PEPs is a theme explored in Tom Brown’s two part series, Understanding Politically Exposed Persons & Their Associated Risks. Tom provides guidance on the definition of Politically Exposed Persons between jurisdictions and looks at how Anti-Money Laundering and compliance specialists can manage the huge risks associated with PEPs as a result of these clients' exposure to wealth, power, information and influence.

Neil Marshall’s article A Banking Utility Belt – A Brief Guide to Tools Available to Mitigate Risk looks at some of the tools available to companies to help them manage their exposure to risk and meet their regulatory obligations.

Editor's Note: Compliance in Context

This article is part of the FreePint Topic Series: Compliance in Context, which ran from September to October 2013. You can still register your interest to receive a free copy of the FreePint Report: Buyer's Guide on Regulatory Compliance published in October.

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