Facing the sanctions challenge in financial servicesA global sanctions compliance study |
Sanctions are as much a fact of life for modern business as global markets. Financial services firms in particular are devoting increasing attention to sanctions compliance, as they navigate a shifting regulatory landscape in which guidelines are often unclear.
This Economist Intelligence Unit study, sponsored by Deloitte, looks at the sanctions challenge facing the financial services industry and is based on an online survey of 388 executives and managers in the sector, as well as in-depth interviews with experts and corporate leaders. Its key findings2 include:
Increasing complexity, regulatory rigor, and the inconsistent nature of global regimes are raising the bar for sanctions compliance. Nearly half of respondents surveyed (46%) by the Economist Intelligence Unit consider sanctions compliance a growing concern; and 63% say it has consumed more time, money, and personnel in the last three years. The biggest cause is the growing complexity of the task — cited by 71% of those in the compliance function — as firms need to check a wide variety of available information against ever-longer lists of sanctioned individuals and organizations. These checks generally use automated databases in the first instance, but all too often follow-up searching on the alerts generated through the automated tools must be conducted manually. This process is time consuming and can be expensive, especially if there are a large number of alerts requiring manual review.
Facing the sanctions challenge in financial services
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