Compliance professionals globally continue to struggle under the weight of global regulation and need the support of the Board and supervisory authorities within their firms to deliver effective and stable risk management, according to a new survey by Thomson Reuters. Already stretched compliance functions will need to find ways to build and maintain relationships with regulators as well as help their Boards deliver an increasingly risk-focused agenda.

The annual Thomson Reuters survey covered more than 800 compliance practitioners from financial services firms including banks, brokers, insurers and asset managers across 62 countries covering Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australasia, Europe and the Middle East. It builds on a survey of similar respondents conducted in early 2012 so presents year-on-year trends and developments. Key findings from the latest report include:

81 per cent of compliance professionals expect an increase in the volume of regulatory information in 2013 with almost half expecting this increase to be significant; In the UK, a greater proportion of compliance professionals than any other region globally (31 percent), spend more than 10 hours per week tracking and analysing regulatory developments. This figure has risen from 25 per cent last year; 65 per cent of companies thought that their liaison with regulators would increase in 2013; A third of respondents expected their compliance budgets to be the same or less at the end of 2013. When contrasted with 81 per cent of compliance professionals who expected an increase in the volume of regulatory information this year, this may indicate that in around one third of firms budgetary constraints will lead to increased pressure on existing resources to do more

“The results of this year’s survey again show that compliance officers are finding the environments in which they operate increasingly challenging,” says Mark Schlageter, managing director, Governance, Risk & Compliance, Thomson Reuters. “Shifting supervisory expectations, the volume and pace of regulatory change and the start of big implementation programmes for major complex legislation continue to pile diverse pressures on compliance functions. It is therefore essential that the effective management of risk and compliance has key contribution not only from a firm’s compliance function but also from its Board and supervisory authorities.”

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