As a vital contributor in any financial services business, compliance officers are under immense pressure to not only maintain regulatory oversight, manage compliance obligations and implement efficient resolutions, but also to balance the impact of any new constraints on the business that may hinder revenue performance.
As government agencies sharpen their regulatory focus coming out of the pandemic, today’s compliance officer faces an overflowing bucket of challenges. The costs associated with monitoring, managing, implementing, and reviewing risk for an organization continue to rise at rapid rates. Feeling the pressure to swiftly sift through the relentless flurry of new regulations can be problematic, opening the firm up to scrutiny over errors.
Compliance Mistakes Deteriorate Revenue Streams
Mounting compliance fees and heightened attention from agencies mean more firms are paying out hundreds of thousands–if not millions–in fines at alarming rates post-pandemic. Any firm that’s paid one of these compliance fines knows just how painful it can be, and how it impacts not only employee morale, but also revenue streams for the organization.
Inefficient Processes Hinder Revenue Growth
Compliance officers are also champions for change management within their organizations. After sifting through hundreds of documents for hours at a time, compliance leaders then have to identify obligations and their impact on the current processes and procedures.
Given that reading through regulatory documents consumes about 65% of a compliance officer’s time, not much is left for optimizing processes and getting other departments on board with strategic shifts. However, without ideal processes operating behind the scenes, organizations fall victim to confusion, mistakes, and lost momentum.
Without the Right Processes, Organic Growth Isn’t Possible
The biggest opportunity for firms building out new revenue channels rests on the shoulders of compliance teams. They have incredible control over the speed with which organizations grow, because until the right compliance processes are in place, firms can’t move into new markets or offer new products and services. Put another way, the speed of your compliance team has a direct impact on your firm’s revenue streams.
You Don’t Need More People
Without a team to divide and conquer, individual compliance officers have to prioritize and adapt, which may make firms think they need to hire more employees to absorb the ever-mounting responsibilities and pressures on their compliance department. But before investing in new talent that will require training and supervision, not to mention take on an incredible responsibility to perform at optimal levels, consider the compounded risk of more human hands in the process.
Investing in human capital has its place in the trajectory of a growing firm. But in this case, adding more bodies to the problem isn’t going to address the crux of your compliance officer’s challenges – yet.
The best kept secret of successful compliance officers is adopting the right technology that complements their strengths and empowers them to work quickly and effectively.
It’s nearly impossible to manually capture everything correctly. Compliance officers stand the best chance of efficiently identifying, implementing and overseeing regulatory risks and obligations when they’re working in sync with an intelligent technology solution. With access to the most reliable data, machine learning can free up compliance officers to focus on the big picture. And no compliance solution is complete without human oversight, so as the regtech industry advances, it enhances the quality of work that compliance officers produce.
Ascent RegTech reduces the enormous burdens on compliance officers by:
o Automating labor intensive activities
o Identifying firm-specific obligations
o Delivering precise regulatory to-do lists
o Maintaining transparency into rule sources
o Mitigating human error
o Enabling firms to scale compliance as they grow
Learn more about how to leverage Ascent for your compliance needs here: https://www.ascentregtech.com/blog/solution-highlight-maintain-regulatory-compliance-in-financial-services-with-ascent/
