Regulatory change has been a constant for banks and financial institutions across the country. The regulatory framework businesses must abide by is constantly being updated and changed considering changing environments, advancements in technology, and other similar factors. If a business truly wants to thrive in the face of regulatory change, they need flexibility and agility.

What it means to embrace change

Embracing change may sound like a vague platitude, but it has a very real meaning when it comes to regulatory change. Regulatory changes are not new, and they will not stop happening. Any business that expects things to remain unchanged will be blindsided by changes and will not be able to adapt.

Becoming an organization that embraces change means that managing regulatory change is embedded within the DNA of the organization. This means that the management, the employee, and all the business processes that are a part of the organization can withstand change. It means that the business aims to stay ahead of regulatory changes and plans for any expected changes long before those changes come into effect.

In short, embracing regulatory change means that adapting to changes in regulations and laws is built into the way the business operates. This flexibility and agility can be a very strong competitive advantage. Your business can end up growing and getting new clients while other businesses are scrambling to make the changes required.

What makes a business agile?

Agility is defined as the ability to move quickly. Agile businesses are those which can quickly react and adapt to changes around them. Any business that wants to succeed while still abiding by a regulatory framework that is constantly in flux needs agility to thrive and survive. There are many different ways a business can be agile and there is a lot of literature on the subject, but here are some of the most important factors that need to be present in an agile organization:

  • Organization-Wide Collaboration
  • Elimination of Bureaucracy
  • Automation Technology
Regulatory change is an inevitability – which is why banks and financial institutions need to embrace the inevitable. Click To Tweet

Organization-wide collaboration

The regulatory change manager should have access to the people and the documents used in every department of the organization. The nature of their work requires that they are able to identify all the problem areas in light of new regulations, and for that they need to be able to collaborate with the rest of the organization. A comprehensive regulatory change management system needs a tool or medium that will allow them to quickly get answers or have a discussion with anyone in the organization.

Elimination of bureaucracy

Another problem that plagues regulatory change management is a high level of bureaucracy within the organization. The person in charge of managing the process of change needs to monitor all compliance related processes within the organization. They need to have some sort of visibility into other departments. They cannot depend on the managers from other departments providing them the data. Waiting to get reports causes too much of a delay and makes the process inefficient. There is also a chance that the departments from other managers may not thoroughly investigate their own department or try to downplay the problems to make their department seem well-run.


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Automation technology

Automation has become a necessity for any organization that wants to embrace regulatory change. There are many parts of regulatory change management processes which can benefit greatly from automation. The regulatory change management solutions of today automate workflows and also keep organizations updated about regulatory changes that affect them. However, not many businesses are utilizing regulatory change management technology, as only 27% of compliance officers had a regulatory change tool in use. This needs to change fast.

Predict360 is a good example of how a regulatory change management system can help regulatory compliance and change managers do their job more effectively. Businesses that map their risks by linking regulations to the documents and processes affected by them get instantly notified of any business process they may need to change. Manually researching all the parts of regulation that have been changed and then manually discovering all the processes affected by the changes takes a lot of resources and time. Automating this process can not only save businesses a lot of hours, it can also make the process more efficient.

Want to find out how your business can improve its regulatory change management framework? Get in touch with our team and see what Predict360 can do for your organization.