"Overlapping and at cross-purposes" - music to information professionals' ears?
Jinfo Blog

By Tim Buckley Owen

Abstract

A recent report from Thomson Reuters outlines the growing workload of compliance officers despite the number of products now available to help them. Keeping abreast of regulatory changes and compliance is a challenge for many, but one where information professionals will continue to find themselves needed.

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Another month, another report from Thomson Reuters (TR) showing how overburdened compliance officers are. But at least the products and services designed to help them keep on rolling out, representing continuing potential opportunities for information professionals.

Last month’s apocalyptic warning came from TR’s State of Regulatory Reform report. Now this month comes another survey from TR, on the cost of compliance, showing professionals hit by the double whammy of ever more global regulation allied to straitjacketed budgets.

Over a third of the people TR contacted reckon they spend a day a week just keeping up to date with regulatory changes – and they’re still struggling to stay ahead. It means they have difficulty finding the time to co-ordinate with other parts of the company managing regulatory risk, and probably aren’t able to keep bosses properly informed about compliance issues either.

TR certainly sees an opportunity here, in the shape of its Accelus suite of compliance solutions. And so presumably should corporate information managers, because TR isn’t the only kid on the block.

Last January, for example, Wolters Kluwer launched a mobile version of its ComplianceHeadquarters website. Designed to provide financial organisations with the latest bank regulatory information, this version is for executives who can’t wait to get back to the office to discover what they’re going to be hit with next.

Late last year, too, Wolters Kluwer acquired the regulatory compliance content of Pringle Policy and Procedure Solutions. It’s integrating Pringle’s worksheets, forms, regulatory checklists and tests into its own ARC Logics for Financial Services enterprise risk management solution.

Now in the United States the global professional services firm Deloitte has launched a Center for Regulatory Strategies, which it describes as “a powerful virtual resource of information and insight on regulatory matters”. It should allow executives to keep an eye on regulations for specific industries and their implications, and will feature videos, podcasts, webcasts, publications and reference materials – frequently put together by former senior regulators.

It’s in the growing complexity of regulatory compliance that vendors seem to see their greatest opportunities. TR reels out a whole string of forthcoming changes, including the splitting apart of the United Kingdom Financial Services Authority, the increase in the regulatory power of the European Supervisory Authorities and the expansion of new agencies in the United States as a result of the Dodd Frank Act. Deloitte, too, points out that companies are now accountable to multiple regulatory agencies – “some new, many overlapping and sometimes at cross-purposes”.

Such words will presumably be music to the ears of information managers too. Order out of chaos – or at least out of complexity – is the business we’ve always been in.

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