Nearly half of risk and regulatory executives in both regions who took part in a survey by AxiomSL, the regulatory reporting IT firm, plan to step up their investment in risk and reporting compliance software this year. Two-thirds of North American respondents are worried about adapting to upcoming regulatory changes, while more than that number of Asiatic respondents are more worried than last year.

In its survey of 132 senior risk and regulatory executives, conducted last month, Axiom asked financial services executives about their outlook on the regulatory landscape.
 
When asked about the biggest regulatory challenges they anticipate in the next three years, two-thirds of North American respondents (66%) were worried about adapting to upcoming regulatory changes, 55% were worried about having to improve data aggregation and reporting, and 38% were worried about allocating necessary resources and capital toward ensuring compliance.

Respondents in the APAC region highlighted the same three concerns, but their primary challenge is allocating the necessary resources and capital (66%). Fifty-nine percent of APAC respondents said improving data aggregation and reporting was another top concern and 57% selected adapting to upcoming regulatory changes.
 
Apprehension on the rise in APAC

More than two-thirds of APAC respondents (69%) said they were more worried this year compared with last year, while just 13% said they were less concerned and 18% reported no change. In North America, less than a third (28%) of respondents said they were more concerned, 33% said they were less concerned, and 13% said there had been no change.
 
An increase in technological investment in both regions

Almost half of the executives in North America and APAC who participated in the survey reported that their firms were going to have to step up investment in risk and regulatory compliance IT this year. Forty-eight percent of North American respondents said their organisations were planning to increase investment, compared with 44% of APAC respondents. Just 11% of North American respondents and 10% of APAC respondents said that their firms were planning to decrease investment.
 
When asked which risk and regulatory technology investments their firms plan to make in the next three years, executives from both regions cited data management (66% in North America; 61% in APAC) and reporting (63% in North America; 67% in APAC). Other top areas of investment in North America are risk and capital analytics (50%) and cloud computing (45%), compared to 37% and 24% in APAC, respectively.
 
Mistrust of data due to inadequate data lineage and process governance

Finally, the survey revealed doubts about data integrity in both regions. More than half (53%) of respondents in APAC do not trust the accuracy of their organisations’ data, compared with more than a third (35%) of North American respondents. Both regions cited inadequate data lineage and process governance as the top reason (31% in APAC and 22% in North America).
 
The survey was conducted at AxiomSL’s annual user conferences in New York and Singapore.