Kinetic Partners, which conducted the Global Regulatory Outlook research, said more than three quarters (77%) of senior managers in the financial services sector would consider ending relationships with clients in a particular jurisdiction due to local legislative requirements and their potential global consequences.
Julian Korek, founding member of Kinetic and one of the authors of the study, said: “The financial crisis has moved national financial stability to the very top of the regulatory agenda, and has therefore caused a shift away from the global integration of financial services and towards more localised regulation instead.
“As a result, we can already see some diversity between regulators, leading to significant cultural differences in interpretation across several countries or regions. The findings of our Global Regulatory Outlook study highlight the fact that senior executives within financial services organisations are understandably wary about becoming embroiled in such an ambiguous regulatory environment.”
Kinetic said concerns over different national and regional regulations “seemed to resonate with the chief operating officers in particular”, with 86% of this group saying they would consider ending relationships with clients in a particular jurisdiction due to local legislative requirements and their potential global consequences. This compares with 78% of chief compliance officers and 66% of chief executives who shared this view.
The global professional services firm added that the research also revealed that although the majority of respondents said the availability of commercial opportunities has the most influence on where they look to do business, the existence of local regulatory requirements was listed as the second most important factor.
