Financial services companies are dedicating a growing portion of their software budget to regulatory compliance, a new survey shows.
The growth of compliance budgets comes as an increasing number of firms are worried about keeping up with changes from the Dodd-Frank reforms, according to the survey released Tuesday by SAI Global Compliance. Nearly all of the respondents, 93%, said compliance with federal regulations was a high priority in 2013.
The percentage of respondents who said their compliance budget would increase this year rose to 58% from 55% last year. Only 10% said their budget would decrease.
For the first time, Dodd-Frank compliance was among the top three concerns cited by respondents. Forty-eight percent of those surveyed said Dodd-Frank was a "top priority," while another 35% said it was a "high priority."
Regulators increasingly shape the focus of compliance programs, the survey found. Seventy-five percent of respondents said that greater pressure from state and federal regulators was driving its compliance priorities, while another 57% said that pressure from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was shaping its compliance program.
As regulators tighten oversight, financial services firms are using increasingly sophisticated tools to determine whether their compliance programs are effective. Seventy-three percent of respondents said that they used an internal audit or assessment to determine if they are compliant with regulations, up from 55% in last year's survey.
SAI Global assembled the survey by polling 121 compliance professionals beginning at the end of 2012. Eighty percent of respondents worked for banks or credit unions.
