Regulatory changes happen all the time, and it’s essential that fintech and financial services companies keep up. Financial industry regulators may be somewhat baffled by fast-moving evolution in the fintech space, but that doesn’t mean they’re not moving to rein in fintechs who provide bank-like financial services.
Fintechs are already subject to some of the same regulations as banks and other financial services providers – for example, they must adhere to anti-money laundering (AML) regulations, just like banks.
As regulatory change looms for the fintech space, it’s important to prepare your company to meet the regulatory change management challenges of the coming months and years.
You need to pay attention to what people are saying about regulatory change and put in the effort to build relationships with regulators and colleagues in the fintech space alike.
You absolutely need to use regulatory change management software, assess your internal regulatory processes for risk, and make sure you have a skilled team dedicated to regulatory change management for your organization.
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Keep Your Ear To The Ground
One of the most useful things you can do to manage regulatory change is to simply know what people are saying about upcoming regulatory changes. Follow regulatory agencies on social media and add their websites to your RSS feed.
Most government agencies will widely share news of upcoming regulatory changes on their social media and websites. You can also subscribe to agencies’ newsletters and blogs to keep abreast of changes in the regulatory space.
Build Relationships
Building relationships with colleagues and regulators alike can help you keep your finger on the pulse of regulatory changes. People will talk about upcoming regulatory changes. Local regulators will naturally be the first to know of any planned changes to your regulatory obligations.
That’s not the only reason you should work to cultivate strong relationships with regulators in your area. Regulators often seek feedback from members of the industry before they make final decisions about new rules.
By putting yourself in their good graces, you’re creating the possibility of having your feedback taken more seriously by your local regulators.
Attend Conferences
Conferences provide an opportunity to schmooze with others in your industry and learn about what the future holds for your organization, especially in terms of upcoming regulatory changes. You’ll have the chance to attend seminars on regulatory compliance, where you can learn best practices.
You’ll have the opportunity to talk to other leaders in your industry to see how they’re managing regulatory change in their own organizations.
You may even get the chance to attend regulatory presentations by representatives of the regulatory agencies themselves, so you can get all of your change management questions answered by true experts.
Use Regulatory Change Management Software
There’s really no excuse for dropping the ball on regulatory change management, now that there are so many good regulatory change management software tools available. You absolutely need regulatory compliance and change management software.
Implementing regulatory changes is neither simple nor easy, and you’ll need the help of a dedicated software tool to keep track of tasks and deadlines, mine data, generate necessary reports, maintain your documentation, and file your paperwork.
The right software will make it so that whenever new regulatory obligations appear, you’re ready to fulfill them with your compliance processes and your trove of compliance data.
Review Your Internal Change Management Processes
You’ll need to be prepared to review your internal processes any time a shift in regulatory requirements happens. That’s to assess the risks of your current compliance processes and see how they measure up to the new, incoming regulatory requirements.
Reviewing your internal change management processes regularly will help you address any areas of weakness in those processes before they result in a data breach or worse. Internal audits help your organization identify risks more easily and allow you to pivot more quickly when regulatory changes occur.
Assemble A Dedicated Change Management Team
Regulatory change management is not something you should leave to chance – nor are one or two harried employees enough to manage your compliance in a changing regulatory landscape. Regulatory changes can come fast, and you need a dedicated team of professionals standing by to implement them as quickly as possible.
A dedicated team will minimize regulatory risk and keep your organization on the right side of the law. Regulatory change management can be a challenge for fintechs, but it’s one you can’t afford to ignore.
Staying on top of your changing regulatory responsibilities is simply the price of doing business – and it will help your fintech company succeed.
