Analysing the role of technology in compliance and regulatory structures

This paper does not set out to be an expert treatise on RegTech or FinTech, or any of the other catchy compound words that have entered our daily lexicon. It simply outlines one organisation’s journey in determining the need for a technological solution for a myriad of compliance obligations. The firm in which the author works has eight (soon to be nine) offices around the world, with two in Australia, and one in the UK, Germany, Switzerland (applying for registration), South Korea, Hong Kong, Japan and the USA. There are some group entities also licenced in Canada and the Cayman Islands. Some regimes require more than one licence (eg, five in Australia alone). The subsequent regulatory burden is significant. Add to that a global insurance programme, a global taxation programme, a global risk management framework, a global governance framework plus the day to day burden of simply running a business — the compliance obligations are huge. Yet, on number of staff alone, the present author’s organisation is nothing like some of the massive financial behemoths around the world, a potential cause of compliance management headaches. This paper is about IFM Investors’ experience in implementing technology into the business to become more effective, and less intrusive on the front line teams when it comes to meeting firm-wide compliance tasks. In doing so, IFM Investors had some learnings along the way from which readers might avoid some of the challenges faced.