Managing your regulatory obligations in a digital world
Managing your regulatory obligations in a digital world
Modern-day financial regulation is moving faster than spreadsheets.
The pace and volume of regulatory change show no signs of easing. From Consumer Duty to evolving expectations around critical third-party oversight, operational resilience, financial crime, and technology governance, firms are being asked to demonstrate compliance in greater depth and with greater responsiveness than ever before.
But a reliance on the same legacy tools remains, with an abundance of spreadsheets, static registers, and disconnected risk logs still being used throughout the financial services industry. These methods, once sufficient for annual audits, now struggle to satisfy regulators who expect dynamic, data-driven assurance.
Across the UK, Europe, and the Middle East, the message is consistent: compliance cannot remain a traditional tick-box activity. It must evolve into an outcome-based discipline. Firms must understand why controls exist and what they achieve, which requires a system of management that’s digital by design. That doesn’t mean firms need to chase innovation for its own sake, but they do need systems capable of integrating obligations, monitoring controls in real time, and evidencing compliance on demand.
The question isn’t ‘what do we need to comply with?’ but ‘how can we manage compliance effectively, transparently, and at scale, in a digital operating environment?’
1. The shifting regulatory baseline
Across all major jurisdictions, regulation is moving in one clear direction: away from a checklist mentality and towards continuous, data-driven oversight.
The FCA now expects firms to use big data not just to tick regulatory boxes, but to prove that their decisions and actions are delivering good outcomes for customers. The focus has shifted from following detailed rules to showing that the firm’s culture, behaviour, and controls actually work in practice. Instead of relying on static reviews or policy documents, firms are expected to use data to monitor activity in real time, spot risks early, and prevent harm before it happens.
The regulator itself has adopted a data-led approach and expects firms to do the same, ensuring that information across compliance, risk, and audit functions is accurate, consistent, and well-governed. In this model, compliance becomes an ongoing process of assurance rather than a once-a-year exercise. Senior managers still hold responsibility for how data and analytics are used, and they must be able to explain decisions and guard against bias or misuse. The underlying expectation is clear: firms should use data to demonstrate, through evidence rather than assertion, that their customers are genuinely better served. This moves the regulator’s question from “show me your policy” to “show me the proof that it’s working.”
This approach mirrors broader trends across global regulatory regimes. The EU’s Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), and the UAE’s frameworks under ADGM and DFSA, both formalise the same expectations: that firms map and actively manage critical services, monitor technology dependencies, and maintain end-to-end visibility of incidents, third-party risks, and remediation activity.
Whether it’s the FCA testing firms’ operational resilience, the EU mandating digital assurance, or Gulf regulators strengthening technology governance, the direction of travel is consistent.
2. Why traditional compliance management can’t keep up
Traditional compliance frameworks were built for a slower world. Policy owners updated manuals once a year, risk assessments were performed quarterly, and evidence lived in shared drives or Excel sheets.
That approach no longer holds. Today’s challenges include:
- Fragmented data: information is scattered across systems, functions, and teams
- Manual oversight: control testing and attestations are being tracked through email alone
- Version confusion: There is no single source of truth for obligations and policies
- Slow response times: new rules are taking months to interpret and map
- Poor audit readiness: firms are having to reconstruct after the fact.
These pain points aren’t just inefficiencies; they are now regulatory risks. When the FCA, DFSA, or FSRA ask for assurance, firms must be capable of producing timely, accurate, and verifiable information. Something, we believe, that the traditional manual processes firms have relied upon up until now can’t keep pace with.
3. The case for modern GRC tooling
Digital compliance isn’t about deploying AI or reinventing risk management. It’s about bringing order, connectivity, and traceability to how compliance operates day to day.
At its core, a capable, digital compliance tool will offer:
- A single digital source of truth for obligations, controls, and risks
- Automated updates when regulations change, with traceable impact mapping
- Integrated workflows for attestations, control testing, and issue management
- Real-time dashboards showing compliance health across business units
- Audit-ready evidence available instantly when requested.
When these elements become digitised, compliance ceases to be a static reporting exercise and becomes a living system. One that continuously monitors, learns, and adapts. We have seen that over time, firms find that digitised compliance delivers more than efficiency, it builds trust, particularly with Regulators, who see firms with clear controls, Boards that gain assurance, and internal teams who can focus on insight rather than administration.
A firm that can trace obligations, monitor controls, and evidence assurance instantly is not only more resilient but also more agile. It can enter new markets faster, onboard partners with confidence, and adapt quickly to change.
This is the promise of digital compliance. It transforms oversight from a series of isolated tasks into an integrated, automated capability. One that scales as businesses grow and evolves alongside them.
Here at Grath, this is exactly what we offer. We can help you scale your compliance programme with our industry-leading GRC platform, which centralises regulatory obligations, streamlines policies, unifies risks, and establishes effective controls. All of which enables your firm to have real-time compliance, incident management, and risk assessment at your fingertips.
Modern-day financial regulation is moving faster than spreadsheets.
The pace and volume of regulatory change show no signs of easing. From Consumer Duty to evolving expectations around critical third-party oversight, operational resilience, financial crime, and technology governance, firms are being asked to demonstrate compliance in greater depth and with greater responsiveness than ever before.
But a reliance on the same legacy tools remains, with an abundance of spreadsheets, static registers, and disconnected risk logs still being used throughout the financial services industry. These methods, once sufficient for annual audits, now struggle to satisfy regulators who expect dynamic, data-driven assurance.
Across the UK, Europe, and the Middle East, the message is consistent: compliance cannot remain a traditional tick-box activity. It must evolve into an outcome-based discipline. Firms must understand why controls exist and what they achieve, which requires a system of management that’s digital by design. That doesn’t mean firms need to chase innovation for its own sake, but they do need systems capable of integrating obligations, monitoring controls in real time, and evidencing compliance on demand.
The question isn’t ‘what do we need to comply with?’ but ‘how can we manage compliance effectively, transparently, and at scale, in a digital operating environment?’
1. The shifting regulatory baseline
Across all major jurisdictions, regulation is moving in one clear direction: away from a checklist mentality and towards continuous, data-driven oversight.
The FCA now expects firms to use big data not just to tick regulatory boxes, but to prove that their decisions and actions are delivering good outcomes for customers. The focus has shifted from following detailed rules to showing that the firm’s culture, behaviour, and controls actually work in practice. Instead of relying on static reviews or policy documents, firms are expected to use data to monitor activity in real time, spot risks early, and prevent harm before it happens.
The regulator itself has adopted a data-led approach and expects firms to do the same, ensuring that information across compliance, risk, and audit functions is accurate, consistent, and well-governed. In this model, compliance becomes an ongoing process of assurance rather than a once-a-year exercise. Senior managers still hold responsibility for how data and analytics are used, and they must be able to explain decisions and guard against bias or misuse. The underlying expectation is clear: firms should use data to demonstrate, through evidence rather than assertion, that their customers are genuinely better served. This moves the regulator’s question from “show me your policy” to “show me the proof that it’s working.”
This approach mirrors broader trends across global regulatory regimes. The EU’s Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), and the UAE’s frameworks under ADGM and DFSA, both formalise the same expectations: that firms map and actively manage critical services, monitor technology dependencies, and maintain end-to-end visibility of incidents, third-party risks, and remediation activity.
Whether it’s the FCA testing firms’ operational resilience, the EU mandating digital assurance, or Gulf regulators strengthening technology governance, the direction of travel is consistent.
2. Why traditional compliance management can’t keep up
Traditional compliance frameworks were built for a slower world. Policy owners updated manuals once a year, risk assessments were performed quarterly, and evidence lived in shared drives or Excel sheets.
That approach no longer holds. Today’s challenges include:
- Fragmented data: information is scattered across systems, functions, and teams
- Manual oversight: control testing and attestations are being tracked through email alone
- Version confusion: There is no single source of truth for obligations and policies
- Slow response times: new rules are taking months to interpret and map
- Poor audit readiness: firms are having to reconstruct after the fact.
These pain points aren’t just inefficiencies; they are now regulatory risks. When the FCA, DFSA, or FSRA ask for assurance, firms must be capable of producing timely, accurate, and verifiable information. Something, we believe, that the traditional manual processes firms have relied upon up until now can’t keep pace with.
3. The case for modern GRC tooling
Digital compliance isn’t about deploying AI or reinventing risk management. It’s about bringing order, connectivity, and traceability to how compliance operates day to day.
At its core, a capable, digital compliance tool will offer:
- A single digital source of truth for obligations, controls, and risks
- Automated updates when regulations change, with traceable impact mapping
- Integrated workflows for attestations, control testing, and issue management
- Real-time dashboards showing compliance health across business units
- Audit-ready evidence available instantly when requested.
When these elements become digitised, compliance ceases to be a static reporting exercise and becomes a living system. One that continuously monitors, learns, and adapts. We have seen that over time, firms find that digitised compliance delivers more than efficiency, it builds trust, particularly with Regulators, who see firms with clear controls, Boards that gain assurance, and internal teams who can focus on insight rather than administration.
A firm that can trace obligations, monitor controls, and evidence assurance instantly is not only more resilient but also more agile. It can enter new markets faster, onboard partners with confidence, and adapt quickly to change.
This is the promise of digital compliance. It transforms oversight from a series of isolated tasks into an integrated, automated capability. One that scales as businesses grow and evolves alongside them.
Here at Grath, this is exactly what we offer. We can help you scale your compliance programme with our industry-leading GRC platform, which centralises regulatory obligations, streamlines policies, unifies risks, and establishes effective controls. All of which enables your firm to have real-time compliance, incident management, and risk assessment at your fingertips.
Modern-day financial regulation is moving faster than spreadsheets.
The pace and volume of regulatory change show no signs of easing. From Consumer Duty to evolving expectations around critical third-party oversight, operational resilience, financial crime, and technology governance, firms are being asked to demonstrate compliance in greater depth and with greater responsiveness than ever before.
But a reliance on the same legacy tools remains, with an abundance of spreadsheets, static registers, and disconnected risk logs still being used throughout the financial services industry. These methods, once sufficient for annual audits, now struggle to satisfy regulators who expect dynamic, data-driven assurance.
Across the UK, Europe, and the Middle East, the message is consistent: compliance cannot remain a traditional tick-box activity. It must evolve into an outcome-based discipline. Firms must understand why controls exist and what they achieve, which requires a system of management that’s digital by design. That doesn’t mean firms need to chase innovation for its own sake, but they do need systems capable of integrating obligations, monitoring controls in real time, and evidencing compliance on demand.
The question isn’t ‘what do we need to comply with?’ but ‘how can we manage compliance effectively, transparently, and at scale, in a digital operating environment?’
1. The shifting regulatory baseline
Across all major jurisdictions, regulation is moving in one clear direction: away from a checklist mentality and towards continuous, data-driven oversight.
The FCA now expects firms to use big data not just to tick regulatory boxes, but to prove that their decisions and actions are delivering good outcomes for customers. The focus has shifted from following detailed rules to showing that the firm’s culture, behaviour, and controls actually work in practice. Instead of relying on static reviews or policy documents, firms are expected to use data to monitor activity in real time, spot risks early, and prevent harm before it happens.
The regulator itself has adopted a data-led approach and expects firms to do the same, ensuring that information across compliance, risk, and audit functions is accurate, consistent, and well-governed. In this model, compliance becomes an ongoing process of assurance rather than a once-a-year exercise. Senior managers still hold responsibility for how data and analytics are used, and they must be able to explain decisions and guard against bias or misuse. The underlying expectation is clear: firms should use data to demonstrate, through evidence rather than assertion, that their customers are genuinely better served. This moves the regulator’s question from “show me your policy” to “show me the proof that it’s working.”
This approach mirrors broader trends across global regulatory regimes. The EU’s Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), and the UAE’s frameworks under ADGM and DFSA, both formalise the same expectations: that firms map and actively manage critical services, monitor technology dependencies, and maintain end-to-end visibility of incidents, third-party risks, and remediation activity.
Whether it’s the FCA testing firms’ operational resilience, the EU mandating digital assurance, or Gulf regulators strengthening technology governance, the direction of travel is consistent.
2. Why traditional compliance management can’t keep up
Traditional compliance frameworks were built for a slower world. Policy owners updated manuals once a year, risk assessments were performed quarterly, and evidence lived in shared drives or Excel sheets.
That approach no longer holds. Today’s challenges include:
- Fragmented data: information is scattered across systems, functions, and teams
- Manual oversight: control testing and attestations are being tracked through email alone
- Version confusion: There is no single source of truth for obligations and policies
- Slow response times: new rules are taking months to interpret and map
- Poor audit readiness: firms are having to reconstruct after the fact.
These pain points aren’t just inefficiencies; they are now regulatory risks. When the FCA, DFSA, or FSRA ask for assurance, firms must be capable of producing timely, accurate, and verifiable information. Something, we believe, that the traditional manual processes firms have relied upon up until now can’t keep pace with.
3. The case for modern GRC tooling
Digital compliance isn’t about deploying AI or reinventing risk management. It’s about bringing order, connectivity, and traceability to how compliance operates day to day.
At its core, a capable, digital compliance tool will offer:
- A single digital source of truth for obligations, controls, and risks
- Automated updates when regulations change, with traceable impact mapping
- Integrated workflows for attestations, control testing, and issue management
- Real-time dashboards showing compliance health across business units
- Audit-ready evidence available instantly when requested.
When these elements become digitised, compliance ceases to be a static reporting exercise and becomes a living system. One that continuously monitors, learns, and adapts. We have seen that over time, firms find that digitised compliance delivers more than efficiency, it builds trust, particularly with Regulators, who see firms with clear controls, Boards that gain assurance, and internal teams who can focus on insight rather than administration.
A firm that can trace obligations, monitor controls, and evidence assurance instantly is not only more resilient but also more agile. It can enter new markets faster, onboard partners with confidence, and adapt quickly to change.
This is the promise of digital compliance. It transforms oversight from a series of isolated tasks into an integrated, automated capability. One that scales as businesses grow and evolves alongside them.
Here at Grath, this is exactly what we offer. We can help you scale your compliance programme with our industry-leading GRC platform, which centralises regulatory obligations, streamlines policies, unifies risks, and establishes effective controls. All of which enables your firm to have real-time compliance, incident management, and risk assessment at your fingertips.
Book your demo today.
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