As one year ends and another starts, it’s normally a time for reflection. We recently looked back at what compliance professionals have learnt over the past 12 months and what they want to take into the new year.
We brought Eugenie Casier, GRC Director, Clausematch, Dominick Campagna, VP of Sales, Ascent RegTech, Dana Lawrence, Chief Compliance Officer and Advisor, Fideseo, Mary Shirley, Head of Culture of Integrity and Compliance Education, Fresenius Medical Care and Conrado Chaves, Head of Compliance, Tide, together in our latest webinar to share five tips they would take into the new year to supercharge their compliance programmes. This blog will share the key takeaways from the session, but you can watch the full webcast here.
Lessons learnt from 2022
As companies are still shaking off the effects of the pandemic and adjusting to a new normal, they look back and regret not implementing compliance technology sooner. Businesses want to keep costs down and if tasks can be done manually, compliance technology is often seen as a nice to have and not a need to have. This is a short-sighted approach, as the consequences of not automating and driving efficiencies can be dire in the long run. Being prone to human error and not being able to scale the function as needed can cause significant damage and prove much more expensive. Adopting the right technology at the right time can keep compliance programmes tight and make sure a company is operating safely. According to our webinar panellists, compliance teams should demonstrate to leadership that compliance is an essential function within an organisation - sooner rather than an afterthought, as well as the value compliance technology can bring to the business.
Regardless of your company's industry, size, or location, it must address compliance
We can easily see by looking at the organisations and job titles of our experts that compliance affects every business. Mary Shirley, Head of Culture of Integrity and Compliance Education at Fresenius Medical Care, may face different problems compared to a FinTech or RegTech company, but yet understands how her needs and wants from a compliance programme are similar to those from tech companies and even financial services organisations.
Accountability
It should come as no surprise that a number of regulations will be launched or updated in the new year, across a variety of industries and geographies, creating new requirements and areas of risk for organisations that don’t comply. As well as the obvious impact of non-compliance, such as reputational, financial damage, missed revenue and growth opportunities, individuals can now be held personally accountable. New rules being brought to light mean non-compliance can now become a personal liability, with senior individuals at risk of being fined and even sent to prison for failing to implement and supervise their company’s policies and procedures.
Our compliance leaders within financial services from different locations shared the tips they will be taking into the new year:
2. Ensure senior management are setting the right tone
When it comes to compliance, Mary Shirley suggests senior management and top executives must set the tone for the entire organisation. For every minute a colleague is in compliance training, that’s a minute they lose from doing their core job. To maximise the effectiveness of compliance training, executives should avoid generic verbiage and communicate with employees to ensure they understand the value of training and that it is more than just a checkbox exercise.
3. Prioritise the new Consumer Duty rules and PSR APP Fraud initiatives
In the UK, Conrado Chaves explained that the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) have confirmed new Consumer Duty rules which will improve how firms serve their customers, with higher and clearer standards of consumer protection across financial services. This will require firms to put their customers’ needs first.
The UK Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) introduced plans for mandatory reimbursement for authorised push payment (APP) fraud. This means banks and other payment service providers will be forced to give the money back to customers who fall victim to APP fraud in the UK.
Conrado highlights that in both of these cases businesses must be certain their compliance mindset and maturity of the programme they use are appropriate for the firm's size and regulatory exposure.
He also recommends businesses look for efficiencies as the industry moves toward tighter budget scenarios.
3. Identify a minimum of one compliance technology solution and get leadership approval
According to Dana Lawrence, it’s important to identify compliance technology early as this will make your compliance team's life easier, free up valuable man power and maximise your compliance budget. Compliance technology, like Clausematch, can help organisations establish a single source of truth for compliance content while seamlessly communicating updates to workforces.
4. Use process mapping to identify areas for improvement
Dominick Campagna recommends spending time with your team to work out your end-to-end process for regulatory change management, policy and obligation mapping and regulatory development reporting.
Figure out who is responsible for identifying a regulatory change. What are all the sources that need to be monitored? Who decides if it applies or not? What happens after it is determined it applies? What KPIs is the team measured on?
This will take time, but it will be worth it when you have visibility into what is taking the most time, what your bottlenecks are, what is working well that can be replicated across other processes, or simply getting everyone on the same page. This view will help you identify where automation can fill a gap.
5. Make compliance a part of your organisation’s DNA
According to Eugenie Casier, your compliance programme must be fully integrated into your business, and all employees must understand their role and the significance of compliance. You can no longer get away with having an off-the-shelf service.
It can be daunting stepping into a new year, not knowing what hurdles your business may face and with experts predicting the longest recession since records began in the 1920s. Our experts’ tips should hopefully help you steer your company in the right direction when it comes to compliance.
Below are some resources that might also help you through your compliance journey:
- How Clausematch Helped Barbican Insurance Group Reduce Policy Management Costs by 30%
- 7 reasons to adopt policy management technology, even with an economic downturn
To find out how we can help, get in touch at evolve@clausematch.com
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