Digital finance: Meeting ethics and compliance challenges in financial services is a briefing paper written by the Economist Intelligence Unit and sponsored by Mazars. The report focuses on the financial services industry’s use of digital tools and corresponding organisational changes both to comply with new regulatory requirements and to meet the challenges of competition from internet-based providers of financial services. The report is based on a combination of desk research, an online survey of 200 financial services companies worldwide, and in-depth interviews with six experts in the topic under study.
The Economist Intelligence Unit surveyed 201 executives of financial services industries in December 2015 and January 2016. Of these respondents, 50 were IT specialists, 51 risk/compliance specialists, and 100 represent a range of other functions. Half the respondents are C-level (CEO, CIO, etc) and above, and half represent companies with global annual revenues above US$500 million. The respondents are concentrated in three regions: 60 in Asia-Pacific, 60 in Europe, 61 in North America, and 20 from the rest of the world.
In addition, the EIU carried out in depth interviews with six experts in the field of study. The EIU would like to thank the following individuals (listed alphabetically by company name) for their time and insights:
- Dr Thomas Loesler, Global Chief Compliance Officer, Allianz
- Andrew White, CEO, FundApps (a regulation technology company)
- Ben Hammersley, Futurist and cybercrime expert
- James Kennedy, Applications Delivery Chief Technology Officer, UBS
- Giancarlo Bruno, head of financial services industries and member of the management committee, World Economic Forum
- R. Jesse McWaters, financial innovation lead, World Economic Forum