The compliance paradox: Budget vs. value
by. Shelbey Ballantyne
It’s a given: successful financial institutions devote a lot of resources to compliance. And rightfully so, considering the potential fines and penalties of non-compliance. However, no institution wants to spend more money on this area than it absolutely has to—hence the constant innovation in the direction of the competitively priced cloud-based solutions (like NeighborBench, of course). But choosing between economy and quality can seem like a contradiction in terms. Before you dive into a new system, let’s review the options.
The lowest-cost compliance resource undoubtedly remains using information straight from the regulatory agencies. This information, which is regularly produced, is extensive and available at no material cost. Lower cost means greater accessibility, which achieves the agencies’ goal of increased awareness of regulatory compliance. Of course, they’re also the ones who deliver the highest cost non-compliance adherence penalties, so perhaps it evens out in the end.
The downside to using the information from regulatory agencies is the sheer volume. As would be expected, the resources from the government often come en masse with limited “sifting” and generally require internal resources to wade through and prioritize the data. Pages and pages of data.
If seemingly endless reading isn’t your cup of tea, you can “go it alone” and supplement with information from the web. A quick search of the Internet beyond regulatory sites will yield nearly unlimited sites seeking to advise on compliance issues. A review of these sites can result in beneficial insights to compliance matters, but again require the user to have a foundational understanding of the information presented in order to identify what is relevant to the user’s financial institution.
continue reading »
