In a SunGard webinar on Wednesday regarding regulatory readiness, 85% said their firms are somewhat ready and most said they have a compliance strategy in place.
The webinar followed up on a SunGard survey from the end of 2013, which was published in February and found that 86% of senior executives polled are stressed from regulatory change. For the webinar, the breakdown on the number of people who answered the poll questions is not available at this time, but the session had over 200 participants, and while the attendees were anonymous, the majority were compliance professionals.
When asked “How would you assess your firm’s regulatory readiness?”, 47.5% said they were somewhat ready, with data and technology aspects lacking the most, while another 37.5% said they were somewhat ready, with the organizational aspects lacking the most. 12.5% responded that their firms are highly ready, and 2.5% said they are not ready.
One of the webinar’s hosts, Sang Lee, managing partner at Aite Group, said it was not a surprise that data and technology are the aspects lacking the most, but on a positive note, those aspects might be easier to change than organizational aspects, he said.
During the webinar, attendees were also asked, “Does your firm have a strategic plan and resources in place to address regulatory change?” The most common answer, chosen by 39.3%, was that their firm has a regulatory compliance strategy and adequate resources in place to deliver on that strategy. Another 31.1% said they have a strategy in place, but their resources are still insufficient to deliver on the plan. On the other hand, 21.3% said they have resources to support compliance but the strategy is unclear, while 8.2% said they don’t have either a strategic plan or adequate resources to confront regulatory change.
The webinar hosts—Lee, along with Jeffrey Wallis, managing partner and president of SunGard Consulting Services, and Magnus Almqvist, senior business development manager at SunGard Protegent (a compliance solution)—said these responses were surprisingly encouraging, but there still remains a sizeable percentage who have an uphill climb. Wallis and Lee noted the importance of firms communicating with regulators in order to be aware of what needs to be done and effectively execute their strategies.
Over the last 12 months in particular, said Lee, firms have moved from the denial phase, thinking that regulation would not happen or would be watered down, to the inevitable acceptance phase that change will happen sooner than later. And most firms have moved from focusing on how to affect the outcome of regulations to actually implementing the changes necessary to comply with regulations, he said.
As for having visibility into the specific regulatory changes expected during the next two years, 69.8% said they feel their firm is on the right track but things could be clearer with regard to expectations around regulatory change. 22.1% feel they don’t have clear visibility into the specifics around regulatory change, while only 7% said they feel confident and know exactly what to expect. Lastly, 1.2% chose the answer “What regulatory changes?”
Most Firms Have a Regulatory Strategy But Are Only Somewhat Ready, Finds SunGard
In a SunGard webinar on Wednesday regarding regulatory readiness, 85% said their firms are somewhat ready and most said they have a compliance strategy in place.