The Accelerated Transformation of Compliance with Samantha Regan

Innovation in Compliance with Tom Fox

Accenture provides top-notch services in strategy & consulting, and operations for its clients. Samantha Regan is Managing Director and Global Lead for the Regulatory Remediation & Compliance Transformation group within Accenture’s Finance & Risk practice. Tom Fox welcomes her to this week’s show to talk about the Accenture Compliance Risk Study Report.

Accenture’s Compliance Risk Study

Tom asks Samantha about the origin of the report. Samantha responds that each year, the team at Accenture gets together to observe and record what’s happening in the world of compliance. They seek to discover the key issues and concerns for compliance officers across various organizations. Developing a framework, conducting a survey and collating the data are the next steps. This is followed by “synthesizing those results and looking for the insights from the information that’s been provided and then developing the report off the back of that,” Samantha tells Tom.

Primary Compliance Risks In 2022

Tom asks Samantha to discuss the primary risks that they identified through the study. She replies that the biggest area of focus for compliance folk in 2022 is cybersecurity, ESG, and privacy. Tom asks her to identify some challenges compliance professionals face when responding to and managing these risks. New pressures are constantly being placed on compliance professionals, Samantha explains. “Compliance functions continue to evolve at a speed and scale and force the compliance function to change from being reactive to what was going on in the environment, to needing to be more proactive, building a function that is able to adapt.” She believes that by using data, compliance officers can “build a future-ready and risk-proof compliance function”.

Looking Ahead

Tom asks Samantha how she thinks compliance professionals should respond to risks in 2025. Would the trends highlighted in the study be accelerated? “I think the warp speed at which companies are operating is going to require compliance functions to have accurate and complete visibility into risks and mitigating controls across the business,” she comments. Data from the study suggests that most of the issues compliance officials have can be attributed to the lack of data; there needs to be enough information available to assess risk exposure. She mentions that there is increasing concern surrounding third-party risk. Samantha believes that with the increasing speed and evolution of risks, “the compressed transformation of organizations and industries is just going to put increasing pressure on compliance functions to continue the transition.”

Resources

Samantha Regan | LinkedIn

Accenture | Compliance Risk Study - 2022