Regulation and compliance requirements are a permanent feature of the finance and operations workload. Aside from managing best practice governance processes to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley and Basel II, financial services organisations also need to address a raft of sector-specific regulatory requirements such as MiFID.
Atos Origin enables our FS clients to maximise the benefits of implementing best practice financial and IT controls while minimising the bureaucratic burden required to make compliance part of ‘business as usual’. There are clear advantages for organisations that aim to do more than ‘tick the compliance box’ and embrace the opportunity to adapt their business and exploit the benefits of change.
Reducing the regulatory burden
Many organisations are running parallel projects to ensure compliance, using large project teams and increasingly large technology initiatives. To reduce duplication of effort, we help organisations to manage the common aspects of compliance at a senior level and from a central viewpoint. Thus, similar cross-organisational issues are addressed on a timely basis and at the lowest cost. Furthermore, implementing a joined-up approach ensures that the benefits of all compliance initiatives are fully leveraged through the value chain.
Our approach starts with a thorough business audit to disclose gaps and quantify the most cost-effective route to compliance. We then conduct a full analysis of the impact of implementing a compliance programme on operational processes and systems, with clear consideration of scale, estimated time/cost and priority of activities.
Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID)
The introduction of the EU’s MiFID initiative to open up European finance markets is prompting financial services organisations to examine their IT infrastructures and overall efficiency.
When the MiFID deadline comes into effect in October 2007, the companies in pole position will be those with clear client and market strategies allied to an understanding of the changes required to their operating models. Although compliance will make additional demands on budgets and resources, these will be far outweighed by the opportunities arising from the opening up and restructuring of European finance markets.
The scope of MiFID is vast, as it will shape and redefine both the core ways in which companies conduct their business as well as organisational design and configuration. Because there will be clear advantages for companies that are better prepared, we are enabling organisations to ensure that they are ideally positioned to exploit the changes.
Read our white paper on the Market in Financial Services Directive (MiFID)
Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX)
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which became effective in 2004, requires all trading companies to produce an annual report on the effectiveness of their internal accounting controls. We enable our customers to realise the wider benefits of embedding the necessary financial and IT controls into the operational model as part of an ongoing programme owned by the business management.
For example, an intra-group reporting solution we designed and implemented for ABN AMRO lead to the introduction of a global control framework, optimisation of company-wide reporting procedures and the allocation of balance sheet accounts in line with SOX law. The process involved managing cultural change and closing information gaps between teams.
Basel II
Basel II is an international requirement which stipulates that all financial services companies must have a greater control of risk around certain trading activities, be they credit, market or operational. We are enabling banks and financial institutions to revise their technology, procedures and policies in preparation for the 2007 deadline.
Treating Customers Fairly (TCF)
The central requirement of the Financial Services Authority’s TCF initiative is that all firms should treat their customers fairly and that this policy should be embedded across operations, distribution channels together with the culture of the organisation. The Customers in Control principles are proposed with TCF in mind.
Read our Customers in Control white paper
A-Day
In April 2006 the Government implemented changes to the existing complexity of pensions regulations to simplify taxation rules. These changes impact on funding limits, benefits, investment options and flexibility of investments.
Read more about our Insurance specific markets