Case Study: Pioneering a data-led approach to managing regulatory, legislative and compliance risks

Engagement overview

The South African insurance and investment industries are in the midst of strong regulatory reforms with a number of new regulations and looming deadlines. Financial Crime, Market Conduct and Privacy regulatory changes have recently been introduced and many more are on the horizon. Non-compliance with new regulations within the stipulated deadlines would lead to the offending organisation facing major financial and reputational risk.

Furthermore, regulatory agencies are also shifting away from the traditional reactive approach of responding to harm after it has occurred, to a far more proactive, preventative approach. Thus putting accountability on insurance and investment companies to have the right framework and processes in place to detect, prevent, mitigate and resolve any harm faced in line with the new regulations.

A leading South African insurance and investment company recognised that there is a critical need to re-evaluate and align their compliance landscape to regulator expectations to not only reduce the risk of being fined, but also to better pursue business opportunities that will either increase revenue or decrease costs.

To achieve this, the client required a translation of the new regulations into business requirements to use as input into a gap analysis of the organisation’s business processes. This would be used to determine the initiatives that would be part of the regulatory programme. The client also needed guidance on how to proceed with the implementation of the regulatory initiatives.

In order to achieve these goals, BSG followed a data-led approach. It was key to first understand the existing client data and the South African and relevant European regulatory landscapes, in order to present a comprehensive view to the client. Once BSG formulated a clear understanding of these, they were able to identify and indicate the regulations applicable to the industry and client.

BSG then worked with the client’s compliance and business teams to understand the compliance gaps across people, process, system and data components. The BSG team collaborated with the client to translate these regulatory gaps into business requirements and used these as input into devising a practical approach to close the gaps.

The resulting analysis was used as input into developing an inventory of highly relevant and required compliance initiatives for the organisation and an implementation roadmap to ensure these are implemented within regulatory deadlines.

Making a difference

Making a difference in communities

By creating a heatmap outlining gaps across the enterprise, BSG provided the client with a comprehensive big picture view of the impact of the regulatory changes. This equipped the client to make a data-led decision regarding which initiatives should be implemented and in which priority. This prevented wasted efforts and allowed for targeted effective application of resources.

BSG provided the client with a clear direction as to how to mitigate the compliance risks, reducing the exposure to financial and reputational risk emanating from potential fines. BSGs support allowed for the creation a plan to seamlessly manage regulatory, legislative and compliance changes, areas often fraught with pitfalls.

The automation of manual compliance checks also resulted in the reduction in errors and omissions from a financial perspective. Enhanced automated compliance processes produced better data and in-turn allowed for improved business intelligence reporting.

Chief Executive Officer

Related Case Studies

Contact Us

We love talking about change. If you've been inspired by anything you've read here, please get in touch.

Not readable? Change text. captcha txt
Case Study Overview: Pioneering a data-led approach to managing regulatory, legislative and compliance risksCompliance, Insurance, Overview
debit order payment collection compliance
Case Study Overview: Improving debit order payment collection to increase customer satisfaction and trust in the client institutionAsset Finance, Compliance, Overview