Compliance Managers Challenged to Keep Abreast of Changing Regulations
Jinfo Blog

By Chris Porter

Abstract

Chris Porter provides an introduction to the drivers for compliance monitoring and the kinds of monitoring options available from do-it-yourself to subscription options and offering varying levels of sophistication and cost. As the pace of regulatory change continues to increase, keeping updated on the changes becomes a progressively more challenging task for those involved in areas such as Anti-Money Laundering (AML), Know Your Customer (KYC), Anti-Bribery and Corruption (ABC) and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (CFT).

Item

As the pace of regulatory change continues to increase in the area of risk and compliance, keeping updated on the changes becomes a progressively more challenging task.

The penalties for non-compliance with current regulations can be severe, both in reputational and in financial terms, with a regular flow of news stories detailing heavy fines.

What Do You Need to Monitor?

The process needs to happen at several levels:

• Initial understanding of current legislative obligations
• Ongoing monitoring of changing regulatory requirements, and consequent change planning in order to stay up to date with requirements
• Ongoing monitoring of changing levels of risk, for entities covered under current legislation
• Ongoing monitoring of national enforcement actions, judgments and fines, in order to understand how exactly legislation is being implemented and what kinds of process are deemed acceptable or unacceptable by regulators.

The understanding of obligations is not a straightforward matter, as different national and international bodies such as the US Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) or the inter-governmental Financial Action Task Force (FATF) issue their various guidelines, rulings and reviews.

“That’s an increasing issue,” LexisNexis market planning manager of Business Information Solutions, Mark Dunn, told FreePint, “not only keeping up with recommendations, but also balancing the different expectations of regulatory bodies.”

What Tracking Options are Available?

The resources available to address these varies widely between organisations. Dunn points out that larger companies are likely to have consultants or law firms to guide them through the complexities of regulation.

For small to medium-sized firms, structured tracking may be more of an issue – though the levels of risk to manage may also be less.

There are various options for keeping pace with changes, involving varying levels of sophistication and cost. Regulatory bodies produce material of their own, which must be tracked; social media is part of the picture; and many vendors offer tracking services through blog sites or open access magazines.

Established subscription-based trade publications and websites offer further options; and feature-rich information and workflow solutions such as Thomson Reuters Compliance Complete, recently reviewed by FreePint, are also part of the picture.

Deciding on the most appropriate way of tracking will depend on of the nature of your organisation’s business, the depth of its pockets and its appetite for risk. One thing is for sure: doing nothing is simply not acceptable. Jorge Montana, head of research and KYC/AML solutions at financial workflow solutions provider Perfect Information, neatly summed up the need during the FreePint Webinar Understanding Compliance Products from the Inside Out: “Being out of date is simply not an option in KYC or AML matters.”

FreePint Subscribers can log in now to read more about the range of available options for tracking regulatory change in Chris’s full article. Log in to view Keeping Up To Date with Regulatory Changes.

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.

Platinum Sponsors:

« Blog