RegTech is the use by financial firms of new IT to fulfil their regulatory duties or, in Deloitte's words, IT that seeks to provide "nimble, configurable, easy to integrate, reliable, secure and cost-effective" regulatory software. A new report has shed light on its adoption all over the world.

The greatest financial technological challenge that firms expect to face in the next 12 months have changed in nature since the previous survey, with the top three challenges cited as:

• keeping up with technological advancements;
• budgetary limitations, lack of investment and cost; and
• data security.

In previous years, the biggest problems related to the need to upgrade old systems and processes, budgetary limitations, the adequacy and availability of skilled resources and the need for cyber-resilience. In terms of the greatest benefits that firms expect to gain from financial technology in the next 12 months, the top three are:

• a strengthening of operational efficiency;
• better services for customers; and
• greater business opportunities.

G-SIFIs are leading the way in the implementation of RegTech. Some 14% of them have implemented such software - up from 9% in the prevous year. Firms that had not yet deployed RegTech cited various reasons for being held back. One-third of them cited a lack of investment; a similar number pointed to an absence of in-house skills and information security/data protection problems. Some 14% of firms reported that they had taken a deliberate strategic decision not to deploy RegTech yet.

Budgets

There continues to be substantial variation in the  overall budget available for RegTech. A total of 38% of firms (31% in the previous year) reported that their budgets would proably grow in the coming year, while 31% of them said that they lacked budgets for RegTech (25% in the prior year).