The biggest regulatory challenges for companies within the next three years include adapting to upcoming regulatory changes, improving data aggregation and reporting and allocating necessary resources and capital to ensure compliance. These are the results of a survey by AxiomSL, a risk and regulatory data technology company, which polled 132 senior-level risk and regulatory executives in North America and Asia-Pacific.

Adapting to change is key challenge

The results found that two-thirds of North American respondents (66 per cent) cited adapting to upcoming regulatory changes, 55 per cent said improving data aggregation and reporting, and 38 per cent said allocating necessary resources and capital toward ensuring compliance. Executives in Asia-Pacific highlighted the same three concerns, but for them the primary challenge is allocating the necessary resources and capital (66 per cent), while 59 per cent said improving data aggregation and reporting is another top concern, and 57 per cent selected adapting to upcoming regulatory changes.

AxiomSL's Alexander Tsigutkin said: “While executives in North American and APAC differed on the ranking, they all agree that one of the biggest challenges is adapting quickly to upcoming regulatory changes. To this end, firms need to ensure they have an agile technology platform that seamlessly interfaces across business functions to optimize business automation processes and controls while delivering workflow transparency and data lineage.”

Investment in compliance is crucial

The survey also found that Asia-Pacific executives are significantly more concerned about their organizations’ ability to comply with upcoming regulations: 69 per cent said they are more worried this year compared to last year, while just 28 per cent of North America respondents said they are more concerned.

AxiomSL's Peter Tierney advises firms to be “more forward-looking and strategic, not only preparing for regulatory changes on the immediate horizon, but also investing in technology that can be leveraged and optimized to operate in a range of different regulatory climates.”

Data management and reporting are biggest investment areas

Forty-eight per cent of North American respondents and 44 per cent of Asia-Pacific respondents said their organizations plan to increase investment in risk and regulatory compliance solutions in 2017, compared to 2016. Some of the risk and regulatory technology areas that firms will be investing in include: data management (66 per cent in North America; 61 per cent in APAC) and reporting (63 per cent in North America; 67 per cent in APAC), as well as risk and capital analytics and cloud computing.