Mimecast has announced new research commissioned by IDG Research on the factors leading financial services organisations to reprioritise how they manage compliance.
Financial services organisations like retail banks, investment firms and insurance companies have always operated under stringent regulations and controls. However, increasing regulatory frameworks and evolving security threats are making compliance an increasing priority within these organisations.
Mimecast and IDG Research surveyed financial services professionals to understand their compliance efforts and what they consider critical priorities. Nearly all respondents (92%) reported that compliance management has become an increasingly high priority over the past two years.
Organisations’ compliance strategies for supervision in the coming year are being shaped most heavily by new regulatory requirements (45%) and a growing number of cybersecurity threats (39%).
When asked which compliance regulations will have the largest impact over the next 12 months, respondents noted those related to third-party collaboration, cloud storage and legislative orders such as Brexit, GDPR and MIFID II.
Regardless of industry, data loss is an ongoing struggle most organisations face. For the financial organisations surveyed it’s the number one concern, largely due to the ever-evolving threat landscape.
More than half (58%) cited data loss as their organisation’s biggest concern regarding non-compliance and 49% said their organisation had been impacted by data loss in the past two years.
Additionally, compliance management can be time consuming. In fact 89% said the amount of time their compliance teams spend maintaining audit readiness has increased over the past two years.
Organisations are looking to reduce the complexity of compliance supervision over the next year. Almost half of respondents cited they intend to improve integration and collaboration between internal teams, streamline processes so IT can focus on higher value activity and improve their ability to document compliance supervision processes in the coming year.
“Compliance is not a one-time thing, it’s an ongoing effort that organisations need to monitor at every level of their business,” said Garth Landers, Director Product Marketing, Archiving at Mimecast.
“The explosion of data combined with the fact that everyone is a technology user has put a lot of pressure on financial service firms to get compliance right. As new rules and regulations come into play, it’s even more important for organisations to ensure they have the right people, processes and technology in place to maintain compliance.”
Earlier this year, Mimecast launched Mimecast Supervision, a solution that helps financial services organisations address supervisory compliance requirements, such as SEC, FINRA, FCA and other regulatory constraints.
As part of the Mimecast Cloud Archive, Mimecast Supervision includes intelligent review, optimised reporting and custom workflows that help improve productivity, simplify compliance and reduce organisational risk.
