Financial services firms globally are facing multiple pressures on their capacity to remain compliant with evolving regulatory demands. 

ACA Group, a governance, risk, and compliance advisor, has strengthened its managed services offering this month in response to a global economic downturn, increasing budget pressure and growing recruitment and retention difficulties. 

It offers firms a customised blend of outsourced task management with the option of leveraging ACA ComplianceAlpha® regulatory technology for increased efficiencies, the firm said in a statement. 

These solutions assist financial services companies globally, helping them to cut costs, reduce turnaround times, and free up resources for value-adding activities.

A report from McKinsey earlier this year highlighted the challenges for business leaders wanting to attract and retain talent with the onset of the “Great Attrition” in which the number of employees quitting, or thinking about doing so, has skyrocketed. 

Meanwhile, Gallup’s State of the Global Workforce 2022 report found that employee engagement rate in the US and Canada is 33 per cent and only 9 per cent of workers are engaged and enthusiastic about work in the UK, the firm continued. 

Research carried out by Oxford Economics also found that it takes workers 28 weeks to reach optimum productivity – which has an attached cost of £25,200 per employee. Furthermore, Work Institute’s Retention Report 2022 found that, in the US, losing an employee typically costs approximately 33 per cent of their base salary, and in 2021 the costs of turnover to employers exceeded $700 billion with the costs of turnover to employers more than doubling since 2009.

A key function of ACA’s managed services offering is analysis and review of marketing and financial promotions. This feature is complemented by electronic communication reviews, AML due diligence and screening services, code of ethics and personal account dealing and administration, expert network chaperoning, and wider regulatory reporting requirements – which are also included in ACA’s managed services portfolio.

Carlo di Florio, global advisory leader at ACA Group, said: “The escalating pace of regulatory change, compliance talent cost pressures, budget constraints, and threat of recession is creating capacity, recruitment and retention challenges for many firms. Yet the pressure from increased global regulatory requirements is only growing. This challenge leaves firms in danger of creating risky exposure gaps in their compliance program.”

As a result, firms are finally beginning to change the way they think about moving to managed services.

“In this climate, risk and compliance leaders are being asked to do more with less. Managed services allows them to offload time-intensive day-to-day tasks to a trusted partner for enhanced efficiencies, allowing them to focus their limited resources on other, value-enhancing activities,” he continued. 

“These services can be scaled to meet the needs of clients and internal governance processes, reduce key person risk, and mitigate burnout and lower the risk of turnover. As regulatory change continues, new compliance challenges will undoubtedly emerge, which is why firms need a managed service partner that is 100 per cent adaptive to changes in the regulatory landscape,” he said.

ACA has also released a white paper investigating the demands firms face in today’s regulatory and economic environment, exploring various trends and solutions to bridging the compliance gap, navigating uncertain geopolitical times, and tackling the war on talent.