Financial services organisations are well placed to benefit from rethinking and transforming regulatory functions across finance and tax.  There are 4 reasons for this:

One

The financial services industry has been redefined over the last 15 years through product convergence, industry consolidation and regulatory change.  This has resulted in significant legacy products, systems and structures which has introduced unnecessary complexity and risk to finance and tax functions. For a range of reasons, rationalisation may not be the solution.

Two

Data remains central to financial services organisation.  This data is critical to both its operation and its reporting.  Data across such organisations tends to be disaggregated and is heavily drawn from unstructured sources.  Leveraging fit for purpose data in a consistent manner creates challenges that require a transformed approach.

Three

Technology investment has largely been focused around the customer rather than middle and back-office functions.  This means that there is a significant level of manual manipulation and spreadsheeting in relation to handling unstructured data.  As digital and automated front ends continue to develop it is critical that middle and back-office functions keep pace.

Four

Complexity in regulatory obligations creates succession risk.  It is often difficult to find the right skills and experience to meet the needs of emerging change.  Part of the solution lies in leveraging consistent ways of working and a transformed process to minimise risk.

These challenges cannot be solved by expanding finance and tax teams.

In fact, merely employing more people may increase risk.  In medium to large organisations it is not unusual for tax functions to spend over 75% of their time on compliance with limited time available to partner with the business in a meaningful way.

An expanded team without addressing the key issues will not only increase risk, it will not allow finance and tax functions to maximise their contribution to enterprise value.

Finance and Tax functions need to respond to these challenges in three ways:

  • Understand and define the data continuum.  This involves understanding the data needs of your regulatory framework and the value and challenges with your upstream data.  It involves identifying and refining data gaps and assessing and mapping data sources.  It also involves agreeing and implementing data analysis that will deliver value across regulatory frameworks. For further information refer to the Re:think Transform Data Continuum
  • Re:think the process and transform the way of working to reduce both cost and risk while improving efficiency
  • Leverage data analysis, dashboarding and insights to better partner with the business.