Thursday 2nd November 2017. Melbourne, Australia. Cyber security is the top business challenge facing companies today, according to findings from the Compliance Index – Edition 2 2017, an industry initiative conducted by Experteq, a leading technology partner for Australia’s financial services sector.
Over the next 12 months, almost half of Index respondents (46%) indicated that cyber security is their company’s number one compliance concern. To safeguard sensitive data and form more intelligent risk insights, more than a third of leaders (37%) are investing in data analytics and Big Data.
Shane Baker, CEO of Experteq, has said that over the 6-month period since the first Index was launched, there has been a distinct shift in industry sentiment, with companies looking at innovative strategies for building cyber resilience and creating a culture of risk awareness.
“Over the past 6 months, cyber security, data security and risk awareness have emerged as the top priorities for leaders. Both in Australia and overseas, we have seen a dramatic rise in cyber security attacks, so companies are heavily focused on building cyber resilience and enhancing risk awareness to mitigate financial and reputational risk.”
Almost half of leaders (48%) are investing in automation to lessen the burden of laborious compliance tasks and enable talent to focus on improving management. For 1 in 3 leaders (33%), the integration of technology, people and processes is the way forward, followed by a top-down approach to risk awareness (22%).
The top-line message from leaders to the regulator is to work collaboratively with companies to educate the market and positively influence compliance behaviours, with over half of leaders (55%) indicating this.
Anthony Quinn, Founder & CEO of Arctic Intelligence, an Australian RegTech company, believes that compliance monitoring is a huge challenge for the regulator.
“Compliance management has been a huge challenge for governing bodies like AUSTRAC. Last year, AUSTRAC performed independent reviews on just 96 businesses, representing half of one per cent, so how can they know, hand on heart, whether the other 99.5% are compliant?”
Julian Fenwick, Managing Director of GRC Solutions and Chair of the RegTech Association, believes that collaboration between RegTechs, industry and the regulator will enhance Australia’s compliance management ecosystem.
“At every industry level, we need to work together to understand and manage the nuances of today’s regulatory landscape. From RegTechs to the regulator, the way forward is through a unified, industry-wide focus on improving compliance practices in Australia.” ~ENDS
Why did Experteq launch a second edition of the Compliance Index 2017?
Experteq has initiated the Compliance Index – Edition 2 2017 to further canvass the challenges and opportunities Australian companies are facing in the areas of compliance, regulation, technology and talent. The Index findings are drawn from responses gathered from C-level executives employed across banking, finance, insurance, superannuation and IT, with the aim of providing a timely and relevant snapshot of the latest compliance trends and strategies.
About Experteq: Experteq is a leading provider of technology services to the Australian financial services market. Experteq has been in operation since 1989 and is Australian-owned and operated. Experteq has gained extensive experience in delivering the highest levels of availability, compliance and quality of service through many years of servicing one on the most highly regulated industries – Banking and Finance. They have delivered high-level services to over 50 financial institution customers.
For media inquiries or to arrange an interview, please contact: Prue Roberts at Manning & Co on +61 (02) 9555 5233, or prue@manningandco.com.au
