The pressure on compliance teams in Financial Services (FS) over the past decade has been enormous. Increased regulation, globalisation and a conservative approach to technology in many compliance teams, has left a number of banks and other FS providers struggling to make their compliance function truly effective.
It’s not a situation that is likely to improve in the short-term. Accenture’s 2019 Compliance Risk Study surveyed 151 senior compliance executives at banking, capital markets and insurance institutions globally, and revealed that 71 per cent of financial institutions’ compliance departments are facing a cost reduction target. 64 per cent of those are targeting budget reductions of between 10 and 20 per cent over the next three years – a considerable reduction when you think that many compliance departments would already consider themselves under-resourced.
This all puts even more pressure on beleaguered and over-stretched FS compliance teams. Where has this pressure come from and what can FS compliance teams do to make up for the lack of resource and improve their efficiency and effectiveness?
