NewAsia compliance teams slow in policy revamp and underfunded

Compliance staffers at financial institutions in Asia are spending more hours per week than anywhere else in the world at revamping their policies in order to get in line with the latest regulation.

About 31 per cent of compliance teams in Asia this year spend more than seven hours a week dedicated to the task, far higher than other regions, according to a report from Thomson Reuters.

The closest were Europe and North America with 22 per cent trying to reconfigure how their banks will adapt to the new policy. The lowest was the Middle East with 10 per cent, a sharp drop from 24 per cent the year before.

"Ideally for firms and their compliance functions, there should be consistency between the expectation of the amount of regulatory information to be published, how much time is spent tracking and analysing regulatory change and then how much time is spent translating that regulatory change into the relevant policies and procedures," the report said.

The way Asia is using its manpower for the job, essentially in review, looks far from ideal. The report does not explain the cause of the trend or whether regulators are to share blame for issuing lengthy reports with convoluted guidance.

Asia's compliance teams score better on the amount of time they spend tracking and analysing new policies.