Compliance is not a new issue. However, its profile has been raised significantly by recent well known scandals and the corresponding reactions by regulators and legislators to tighten existing regulations or pass new ones. Compliance lies at the heart of an organisation and its reputation, affecting how it is run, how it operates on a daily basis, how it attracts new business and what it does to retain customers.

Anti-money laundering compliance is an example of a legal obligation placed on any person or organisation. Financial services professionals have a duty to report a suspicious transaction although detailed record keeping requirements are currently only defined by the financial sector regulators.

Analytics adds a further dimension to the record keeping requirements by compelling an organisation to not only keep transactional records, but also records of the decisions and the decision making processes relating to those transactions.

Complaints management is an area in which organisations have specific compliance requirements. The majority of companies provide some form of help desk or after-sales service but many, especially those in the regulated industries may not realise that they have an obligation to provide specific information to the regulator.