The REGTECH Book

The Augmented Compliance Office

By David Craig

CEO, Refinitiv

The financial industry’s first response to the global financial crisis and the initial wave of regulation was to commit large amounts of money – or, more accurately, large numbers of people – to the problem. Almost overnight the industry scaled up its compliance resources by employing more people to deal with the growing burden of regulation. Ten years on from the beginnings of the crisis that still casts its shadow over the sector, the approach is both more efficient and more effective, augmenting the compliance function with new tools and approaches that enable more accurate and targeted risk management.

Back in 2008, any of us in offices in London’s Canary Wharf could see for ourselves that our world was changing irrevocably: the ranks of people in the Lehman Brothers building, their backs against the glass as they learned their company was collapsing. The legions of people carrying the contents of their desks in cardboard boxes, taking their commute home for the last time. We all knew the occasion was momentous, and we all knew things had to change.

As government and regulators responded to the crisis with thicker, denser rulebooks, the finance industry responded by building up its compliance departments.

As a consequence, we are now seeing the first wave of the industrialization of compliance.

Regulatory processes up to this point have been very manual. They are not a competitive differentiator for any company ...