Increasing Regulation Takes its Toll on Compliance Efforts

Company secretary services provider London Registrars (http://www.london-registrars.co.uk/) reports on the Thomson Reuters survey which reveals that increasing regulation, along with budgetary restraints and limited resources, are putting additional stress on companies’ compliance efforts.

The Thomson Reuters survey entitled ‘Governance, Risk & Compliance’ surveyed more than 500 company compliance officers at financial services firms around the world throughout 2011 in order to gain insight into how compliance is being managed by UK companies. Findings published earlier this year revealed that compliance professionals are under increasing pressure to keep up with the growing demands of global regulation. Added to the increasing regulation and reporting measures, however, are constraints on both budget and resources, the combination of which is taking its toll on worldwide company compliance efforts.

Summary of findings:

Increasing regulation:

• 84% of compliance professionals expect to handle more regulatory information this year;
• Nearly half expect the level to be significantly higher;
• Major changes anticipated this year include the splitting apart of the UK Financial Services Authority; an increase in the direct regulatory power of the European Supervisory Authorities; the expansion of several regulatory agencies in the US; and the increasingly global reach of regulations such as the UK Bribery Act and the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act.

• Over a third of compliance professionals say they spend more than a day per week staying up-to-date with regulatory changes;
• The survey revealed these professionals do not adequately coordinate with other parts of the company involved with managing regulatory risk due to time constraints;
• More than a quarter say they spend less than one hour a week reporting to their boards, raising concerns about whether management is being informed on company compliance issues.
  
  Budget constraints:
  
• 70% of respondents expect the cost of senior compliance staff to be higher this year;
• Only 11% of companies are expecting a significant increase in their compliance budget, raising concerns about a lack of budgetary cover given the expected increase in regulatory change.

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