Regulatory compliance has become an increasingly costly burden. For example, SIFMA has estimated that the U.S. securities industry in 2004 spent $23.2 billion on compliance-related activities(1). In addition, regulatory mandates have become more intrusive in their application to how business is conducted...

As the global economic crisis rumbles on, financial firms of all kinds anticipate an overhaul of risk management and regulatory frameworks. I asked Microsoft’s global head of Financial Services, Susan Hauser, for her views: Sai: Susan, as the global head of Microsoft Financial Services, what has the...

At the heart of the record retention challenge is the difficult question as to what types of documents to maintain for compliance purposes and how long to maintain them. In certain cases, applicable laws and regulations specify the types of documents to retain and the length of time to retain them. For...

If a company were ever asked to describe its IT security program, the company likely would have to bring in numerous staffers from the IT department and refer to reams of documents to present a full picture of the company’s IT security approach. The need to be able to describe the company’s IT security...

In our last blog posting, we summarized the Obama administration’s proposed financial services industry regulatory reforms, as set forth in its “New Foundation” white paper [1] . The following are some of the possible business impacts of the changes, if enacted into law: For hedge funds and...