Regulations jam fiaters

International Banker:

As the dust settled on the 2008 financial crisis, the reckless behaviour of a few individuals and organisations became clear. The outcry from the public and media alike led to a global call for governments and regulators to clamp down and call those responsible to account. Since then we have seen some of the biggest penalties ever levied against corporations for a variety of failings along with an influx of new and tougher regulation. Several global banks have picked up fines of more than a billion dollars, and it is clear that regulators are keen to show that they will come down hard on poor practices.The amount of post-crisis regulation is staggering; the number of rules changes that global financial institutions must track on a daily basis has trebled since 2011, to an average of almost 200 revisions a day (according to Thomson Reuters).It is not only the volume of regulation that is stretching UK compliance resources but also its reach. MiFID II (Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II), FATCA (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act) and GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) all originated overseas but have placed enormous strain on financial services in the United Kingdom. HSBC, for example, increased the number of its compliance staff globally from 1,750 to 7,000 between 2007 and 2016. And there is no sign of the rate of regulatory change slowing down soon.