Financial services firms are receiving an increasing volume of regulatory updates, guidance and supervisory communications. But identifying a development is only the first step in managing regulatory change.

Organisations must also determine whether a requirement applies to them, assess the potential impact, assign responsibility and demonstrate that the necessary changes have been implemented.

For firms relying on spreadsheets, email alerts and disconnected internal processes, maintaining that chain of activity can become increasingly difficult. The risk is not always that a compliance team makes the wrong decision. It may be that an important development is overlooked, an action is not assigned or an implementation deadline is missed.

As regulatory change becomes more continuous, firms need to consider how technology can connect monitoring, interpretation, implementation and evidence.

Regulatory failures do not always begin with a major oversight. Sometimes the problem is a consultation paper that was not flagged, an amendment that was not mapped or a deadline that remained in someone’s inbox.

Relying on manual processes can make it harder to identify these gaps, particularly when firms are monitoring developments across multiple jurisdictions and regulatory bodies.

RelyComply highlights the risk of relying on individual employees and disconnected processes to keep track of regulatory developments.

“Most regulatory failures don’t begin with a bad decision, but rather with something nobody noticed: a consultation paper that wasn’t flagged, an amendment that wasn’t mapped, a deadline that sat in someone’s inbox,” the company says.

The challenge extends beyond monitoring publications. Once a development has been identified, firms must establish which legal entities, products, processes, controls and systems are affected.

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