Global Financial Firms Agree Automation, Remote Collaboration, Cloud, and Data Analytics are Biggest RegTech Priorities Following COVID-19 Pandemic

AxiomSL's survey of financial risk and regulatory compliance professionals in EMEA aligns with North American survey results stressing continued investment in tech infrastructure

LONDON, Feb. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The 2020 AxiomSL annual user conferences in North America and EMEA regions have produced a clear consensus among global financial risk and regulatory compliance professionals on the most critical issues for the year ahead. According to surveys of participants in both events, automation, remote collaboration, cloud, and data analytics need to be the priorities for risk and regulatory compliance professionals as they chart a course to recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Regulatory reporting and risk management tends to be heavily influenced by regional regulatory requirements and pending legislation that will affect risk professionals in their own back yards, but this year has been very different," said Ed Royan, Head of Global Product, AxiomSL. "In many ways, the COVID-19 pandemic has created the need for a more concerted, technology-driven, global response to regulatory reporting – one that addresses the need for seamless collaboration among disparate teams, increased automation, and a continued expansion of data analytics capabilities," Royan continued. "Indeed, firms are seeing the benefits of RegCloud^®, our secure cloud offering that insulates clients from both technology regulatory changes while enabling efficient outcomes across the global regulatory reporting landscape." 

Following are some of the key findings of the AxiomSL EMEA client survey:

• Automation is the top challenge for next two years: Financial risk and regulatory professionals on both sides of the pond say eliminating manual processes is the top challenge their organizations will face over the next two years, with 28% of EMEA respondents and 29% of North American respondents saying their organizations are focused on automation.
  
  
• Remote collaboration is the top operational challenge: More than half of respondents to the EMEA survey (51%) cited collaborating with teams while working remotely as the top operational challenge they have faced during the pandemic. Among North American respondents, 41% cited remote collaboration as the biggest operational challenge.
  
  
• Data analytics and cloud come into focus: After years of resisting cloud adoption, many EMEA and North American financial institutions are finally gearing up to make the move. When it comes to regulatory technology spending over the next two years, enhanced data analytics is the top area of focus among 32% of EMEA and 29% of North American survey respondents. Cloud deployment followed with 23% of the vote among both EMEA and North American respondents.
  
  
• RegTech budgets largely unchanged for 2021: The majority of EMEA (65%) and North American (70%) financial risk professionals said their regulatory technology budgets were not influenced by the COVID-19 crisis, while 22% of EMEA and 19% of North American respondents said they would spend less as a result of the pandemic. The remaining 13% of EMEA respondents and 11% of North American respondents said their firms would spend more on regulatory technology this year.

The two surveys were conducted independently as part of AxiomSL's annual EMEA User Conference, which was held virtually on November 19, 2020, and North America User Conference, which was held virtually on June 18, 2020. Survey respondents represented a cross-section of financial risk and regulatory professionals from global systemically important banks (G-SIBs), regional banks, and foreign banking organizations (FBOs). The full report is available here: https://www.axiomsl.com/impacts-and-trends-in-risk-and-regulatory-reporting/

About AxiomSL
AxiomSL, a leading global provider of solutions and managed services, delivers efficient risk and regulatory data-management and reporting outcomes for financial institutions. Clients leverage AxiomSL's solutions across financial, liquidity, capital and credit, shareholding disclosure, trade and transaction, and tax mandates. Its single, fully managed, audit-empowered offering, RegCloud^® – AxiomSL's ControllerView^® platform in the cloud, futureproofs clients against technology and regulatory change. AxiomSL's client base spans national, regional, and global financial institutions. These comprise banks with $45 trillion in total assets including 80% of G-SIBs; investment managers with $13 trillion in assets under management; and 30% of the top 60 US broker-dealers representing $44 billion in shareholder equity. It covers 110 regulators across 50 jurisdictions. AxiomSL ranks in the top 20 of the Chartis RiskTech100^®.

For more information, visit www.axiomsl.com 

SOURCE AxiomSL