Finance
FAIL TO PREPARE, PREPARE TO FAIL: THE IMPORTANCE OF FINANCIAL COMPLIANCE
Published
2 years agoon
By
admin
Attributed to Ross Woodham, General Counsel and Chief Privacy Officer, Aptum
A recent VMWare report found that cyber-crime in the financial sector grew by 238% between February and April 2020. 80% of surveyed financial institutions reported an increase in cyberattacks over the past 12 months, and 82% said cybercriminals have become more sophisticated over the past 12 months. This threat requires a strict regulatory and compliance landscape that must be abided by to protect consumers’ data.
Without understanding the importance of security and the complexity of compliance, financial institutions will find it challenging to implement a clear regulatory strategy to mitigate risks and avoid other expensive and legal side effects of noncompliance. This is particularly important as many financial leaders aim to promote a strong compliance company culture to enhance customer experience and loyalty, protect employees, satisfy shareholders, and have the trust of financial authorities.
In part, cyber threats are increasing due to a shift in how workplaces operate — with the volume of attack surfaces growing exponentially due to the increased number of remote workers over the last 12 months. This has taken place against the background of a data explosion, governmental institutions implementing new data privacy regulatory laws, such as the GDPR, Brexit privacy regulations, and ransomware policies. Combined, these changes all bring complex challenges for any financial institution looking to adhere to data privacy and compliance across the IT spectrum.

Ross Woodham
Financial institutions are adopting cloud technologies to help navigate these challenges. Along with the well-understood advantages of scalability, agility, and a pivot towards OPEX operational models, 51% of senior IT decision-makers cite security and compliance issues as a key driver behind migration to the cloud.
Compliance: The Heart of Financial Institutions
At their core, banks and other financial institutions are expected to collect, manage, and store customers’ financial information and money. In addition to this, financial firms must comply with national and international laws to keep their financial data safe and secure; protecting the data of the customers from any kind of fraud and maintaining compliance with the government policies while also ensuring financial services and products are made more convenient to use. There has been a swift and sharp shift towards digital platforms all over the world, and all industries are changing their models accordingly, which makes strict monitoring and adherence to compliance, with rules and regulations, necessary.
Given the current climate, nearly all industries are falling victim to ransom attacks at the hands of savvy cyber actors. Advances in security technology, adopting new rules and regulations, and a change in the mindset and outlook towards digital finance have helped company owners a great deal in staying a step ahead of these criminal minds. At the end of the day, it is all about ensuring IT leaders have the necessary internal control systems and networks in place so that regulatory compliance can be properly monitored.
The importance of compliance with cloud operations
Compliance offers many critical benefits to financial firms. For example, its execution results in fewer legal problems, improvements in operations and safety, and results in higher employee retention. But while compliance has become crucial for businesses, the regulatory challenges, and complexities to navigate it have also escalated. If not done correctly, compliance can prove to be costly and stunt business growth.
Firms need to recognise that a move towards cloud-based operations does not obviate them from their responsibilities. Indeed, to ensure companies don’t face the consequences of not being compliant — a long list including financial penalties, industry disqualification, reputation damage, and, in severe cases, the shutdown of an organisation – business leaders must work with cloud experts to create a comprehensive strategy that will improve operational efficiency and scalability of compliance at the company.
Security and data protection concerns: The primary barriers to cloud transformation
According to data from the Aptum Cloud Impact Study, the top three barriers cited by respondents regarding a move to the cloud include security, governance, and compliance. Indeed, 38% cite security and data protection as the primary barrier to cloud transformation. However, these issues are commonly associated with the mismanagement of cloud infrastructures rather than cloud infrastructures per se.
A recent McAfee report found a 630% increase in attacks aimed at cloud services since January 2020. As a result of this sort of activity and despite the increased security in hybrid cloud environments that companies are seeing, there is also a range of serious challenges that need to be overcome.
- Valuable enterprise data resides outside the corporate security system, raising severe concerns.
- Without help from a cloud expert, the sheer complexity of cloud operations makes it difficult to establish and maintain effective compliance protocols.
- Hacking and various attacks on cloud infrastructure can affect multiple clients even if only one site is attacked. An example of this happened recently, with the Kaseya ransomware attack; while less than 0.1% of the company’s customers were embroiled in the breach because its clientele includes Managed Service Providers, estimates are that anywhere between 800 to 1500 small to medium-sized companies may have experienced a ransomware compromise through their MSP.
These risks can be mitigated in numerous ways by using security applications, encrypted file systems, data loss software, and buying security hardware to track unusual behaviour across servers. Cloud data security is vital for data protection when storing in the cloud. By embedding security at the beginning of a digital transformation process, FSIs and banks can achieve better security levels than they could in their server rooms.
Cloud Security and compliance act as a bank’s golden ticket to cyber success. Financial leaders must embrace compliance and not just do it but do it well to outsmart crafty cyber actors. Furthermore, to ensure a smooth and secure cloud migration and management, organisations should ideally work with technology experts, like Aptum, to help them understand how to avoid the consequences of noncompliance and manage data efficiently and securely.
Finance
Taxing times for online marketplaces? Operators must act now to avoid losing sellers
Published
2 hours agoon
June 9, 2023By
admin
By Niall Kiernan, Senior Director of Product Marketing, Vertex
In today’s digital landscape, online marketplaces are an enabler for many businesses to achieve their growth ambitions. From Amazon to eBay, Etsy to Vinted, businesses of all sizes are now utilising online marketplaces, and recent years has seen exponential growth in this area. Numerous factors, including the proliferation of mobile devices and widespread availability of high-speed internet, have resulted in this escalation. Combined with consumer demand for convenience, along with the impact of the pandemic, the success of online marketplaces can be seen in the numbers. In 2021, retail eCommerce sales amounted to approximately US$ 5.2 trillion worldwide. This figure is forecast to reach US$8.1 trillion dollars by 2026.
It is clear that online marketplaces are a vital source for businesses to continue to flourish but there are still major roadblocks which can hinder a business’ efforts to capitalise on the booming sector. According to research commissioned by Vertex, which surveyed 479 finance professionals globally, seven out of ten sellers using marketplaces to trade online believe that indirect tax challenges could deter them from using them again in the future.
The complexity of ensuring a frictionless eCommerce experience
Whilst over half of respondents in the survey agreed that marketplaces are getting easier to use as a sales channel, ensuring that both operators and sellers can enjoy a frictionless experience is one of the biggest challenges in the space. Respondents indicated that they are looking for more support and guidance on issues including: how to ensure transactions and the transfer of money can be more seamless (65%), tax liabilities (64%), and compliant invoicing (63%). But what are some of the specific roadblocks both marketplace operators and sellers are experiencing?
- The cross-border trade conundrum
85% of marketplace operators surveyed indicated that they are looking to increase their seller base, however there are numerous tax complications when trade crosses borders. Four out of seven operators stated they have struggled to manage tax liabilities and tax complexities around seller shipping locations. Online marketplaces are very much a global affair, with cross-border transactions being the norm.
The difficulty here is that both operators and sellers must comply with the different tax regimes of the countries they operate in, which can be a complex and burdensome process. Seller respondents reported a wide range of issues when they sell through marketplaces, including balancing their tax liabilities and knowing where and when they are liable for tax.
- Complexities in every step of a transaction
Dig beneath the surface and the process of a transaction is much more complex than initially meets the eye. From listing fees to shipping and handling charges, or the previously mentioned cross-border trade complexities, every step in the transaction process brings multiple challenges to both the operators and sellers themselves.
45% of sellers surveyed want their marketplace operators to improve the process of finance and tax automation to overcome these barriers, but of the operators, only 56% manage all tax liabilities on their seller’s behalf. If marketplace operators want to ensure they have a healthy population of sellers, this figure needs to increase.
Tax technology for a trouble-free tomorrow
Although there are clear and significant indirect tax challenges for online marketplaces, the space remains an attractive channel for businesses to achieve their growth ambitions. 81% of businesses are taking advantage of online marketplaces to attract new customers and sell into more countries and upon further inspection, they attribute this expansion into marketplaces to reach a wider geographical market (57%), to being more competitive (50%) and to tap into cross-border sales opportunities (48%). It’s clear that sellers are wanting to utilise online marketplaces to expand their customer base globally and if operators want to increase their seller base and take advantage of the growing demand for this, and 85% of those surveyed do, then they need to ensure that their platforms offer a seamless experience for their sellers.
By investing in an end to end tax management solution which can handle all types of indirect tax requirements, you will be able to support sellers on their own individual growth journeys. In addition, you can rest assured that it will also enable them to feel confident that their chosen platforms can meet all the indirect tax requirements as they increase their cross-border sales.
To learn more about the taxing times for the marketplace and seller relationship, download the latest report by Vertex.
Business
Unlocking the Power of Data: Revolutionising Business Success in the Financial Services Sector
Published
18 hours agoon
June 8, 2023By
admin
Suki Dhuphar, Head of EMEA, Tamr
The financial services (FS) sector operates within an immensely data-abundant landscape. But it’s well-known that many organisations in the sector struggle to make data-driven decisions because they lack access to the right data to make decisions at the right time.
As the sector strives for a data-driven approach, companies focus on democratising data, granting non-technical users the ability to work with and leverage data for informed decision-making. However, dirty data, riddled with errors and inconsistencies, can lead to flawed analytics and decision-making. Siloed data across departments like Marketing, Sales, Operations, or R&D exacerbates this issue. Breaking down these barriers is essential for effective data democratisation and achieving accurate insights for decision-making.
An antidote to dirty, disconnected data
Overcoming the challenges presented by dirty, disconnected data is not a new problem. But, there are new solutions – such as shifting strategies to focus on data products – which are proven to deliver great results. But, what is a data product?
Data products are high-quality, accessible datasets that organisations use to solve business challenges. Data products are comprehensive, clean, and continuously updated. They make data tangible to serve specific purposes defined by consumers and provide value because they are easy to find and use. For example, an investment firm can benefit from data products to gain insights into market trends and attract more capital. These offer a scalable solution for connecting alternative data sources, providing accurate and continuously updated views of portfolio companies. Using machine learning (ML) based technology enables the data product to adapt to new data sources, giving a firm’s partners confidence in their investment decisions.

Suki Dhuphar
But, before companies can reap the benefits of data products, the development of a robust data product strategy is a must.
Where to begin?
Prior to embarking on a data product strategy, it is imperative to establish clear-cut objectives that align with your organisation’s overarching business goals. Taking an incremental approach enables you to make a real impact against a specific objective – such as streamlining operations to enhance cost efficiency or reshaping business portfolios to drive growth – by starting with a more manageable goal and then building upon it as the use case is proved. For companies that find themselves uncertain about where to begin their move to data products, tackling your customer data is a good place to start for some quick wins to increase the success of the customer experience programmes.
Getting a good grasp on data
Once an objective is in place, it’s time for an organisation to assess its capabilities for executing the data product strategy. To do this, you need to dig into the nitty-gritty details like where the data is, how accurate and complete it is, how often it gets updated, and how well it’s integrated across different departments. This will give a solid grasp of the actual quality of the data and help allocate resources more efficiently. At this stage, you should also think about which stakeholders from across the business from leadership to IT will need to be involved in the process and how.
Once that’s covered, you can start putting together a skilled team and assigning responsibilities to kick-off the creation and management of a comprehensive data platform that spans all relevant departments. This process also helps spot any gaps early on, so you can focus on targeted initiatives.
Identifying the problem you will solve
Now let’s move on to the next step in our data product strategy. Here we need to identify a specific problem or challenge that is commonly faced in your organisation. It’s likely that leaders in different departments, like R&D or procurement, encounter obstacles that hinder their objectives that could be overcome with better insight and information. By defining a clear use case, you will build a real solution to a challenge they are facing rather than a data product for the sake of having data. This will be an impactful case study for your entire organisation to understand the potential benefits of data products and increase appetite for future projects.
Getting buy-in from the business
Once you have identified the problem you want to solve, you need to secure the funding, support, and resources to move the project ahead. To do that, you must present a practical roadmap that shows how you will quickly deliver value. You should also showcase how to improve it over time once the initial use case is proven.
The plan should map how you will measure success effectively with specific indicators (such as KPIs) that are closely tied to business goals. These indicators will give you a benchmark of what success looks like so you can clearly show when you’ve delivered it.
Getting the most out of your data product
Once you’ve got the green light – and the funds – it’s time to put your plan into action by creating a basic version of your data product, also known as a minimum viable data product (MVDP). By starting small and gradually enhancing with each new release you are putting yourself in the best stead to encourage adoption and also (coming back to our iterative approach) help you secure more resources and funding down the line.
To make the most of your data product, it’s essential to tap into the knowledge and experience of business partners as they know how to make the most of the data product and integrate it into existing workflows. Additionally, collecting feedback and using it to improve future releases will bring even more value to end users in the business and, in turn, your customers.
Unlocking the power of data (products)
It’s crucial for companies in FS to make the most of the huge amount of data they have at their disposal. It simply doesn’t make sense to leave this data tapped and not use it to solve real challenges for end users in the business and, in turn, improve the customer experience! By adopting effective strategies for data products, FS organisations can start to maximise the incredible value of their data.
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