Risk and Compliance teams in regulated financial services firms know the feeling: endless spreadsheets, constant email chains, and that sinking worry about something important being missed. Although Excel, Word, PDF and email were once standard tools, they’ve become more and more risky as the scope of activities, level of risks and complexity of managing compliance obligations grows.

Ben Mason is no stranger to the challenges. He founded one of the leading FCA/PRA regulatory compliance consultancies and for almost 20 years has been offering advice to financial services firms to help them manage their compliance obligations. He’s seen the risks and consequences of using manual processes and defunct systems. It’s why he’s so passionate about technology and the difference it can make, and what led him to launch My Compliance Centre.

1. Human error – the unavoidable truth

Let’s face it, people make mistakes (I know I do!) — it’s human nature. But when it comes to compliance, even small errors can lead to significant issues. Excel-based processes increase this risk dramatically, from simple typos to data duplication or loss. Each manual input is a potential mistake waiting to happen, and even when you think you have everything under control you get the dreaded ‘file corrupted’ message. It all leaves your firm vulnerable to compliance breaches, regulatory scrutiny, and reputational damage.

2. Lack of real-time visibility

Manual processes and systems like Excel can’t provide real-time visibility. With multiple versions flying around, it’s easy for critical information to become outdated or lost entirely. Compliance teams are left blind to emerging risks, unable to proactively respond, and constantly playing catch-up. This lack of timely visibility makes managing compliance stressful, reactive, and ineffective. It is also far more difficult to be strategic and access timely management information, for use both within compliance and the wider company.

3. Poor audit trails – the auditor’s nightmare

Imagine an FCA supervisor arriving and asking for clear evidence of your compliance. With Excel and email, providing a coherent audit trail is a daunting task. Retrieving historical data from scattered spreadsheets or fragmented email chains is difficult and time-consuming, causing anxiety during audits. It’s easy for key details to get overlooked, raising red flags during regulatory inspections.

Conversely, with fit for purpose risk and compliance technology solutions by definition they should provide a full audit trail, it makes it very easy to demonstrate your compliance, show you are in control – and encourage the FCA to go and spend their valuable time investigating someone else!

4. Limited reporting – leaving stakeholders in the dark

Manual compliance processes often fail to deliver comprehensive, actionable management information (MI). And, if they do, it often needs significant amounts of reworking. Producing meaningful reports from scattered spreadsheets is laborious and prone to inaccuracies. Board members, compliance heads, and operational staff are left without the clear insights they need to make informed decisions or demonstrate strong governance. Stakeholders across the organisation are frustrated by the lack of clear, timely data, making effective oversight and decision-making extremely difficult.

5. Inefficiency and wasted resources

Compliance professionals are highly skilled individuals whose expertise should be focused on managing and mitigating risk — not endlessly updating spreadsheets or chasing down tasks and information. The inefficiencies inherent in manual compliance processes drain resources, limit productivity, and distract talented teams from strategic initiatives. Firms lose valuable time and money simply because their processes are outdated and talented team members can become disillusioned with an employer using outdated techniques.

6. Manual reminders and approvals

A further high-risk waste of time for compliance teams is spending time tracking when tasks need completing by colleagues, or when scheduled reviews, such as annual policy reviews, are outstanding. When done manually it is easy to miss actions not carried out or to fail to remind colleagues of their obligations. An automated system will execute the necessary reminders and compliance teams can simply report by exception to see which tasks have not been carried out.

Technology – A Clear Path Forward

Recognising these risks, many regulated firms are embracing regtech compliance solutions that are designed for FCA regulated firms (and therefore fit for purpose) – like My Compliance Centre. Inbuilt automation dramatically reduces human error; extensive MI dashboards provide instant visibility and offer powerful reporting capabilities; and robust audit trails make evidencing compliance a simple touch of a button task.

Risk and Compliance teams can shift from administrative tasks to strategic management, enhancing regulatory readiness and stakeholder confidence. People often talk about efficiency when mentioning regtech but that’s a small part – it’s really about protecting you and your firm from costly mistakes and regulatory scrutiny.

My Compliance Centre offers a comprehensive set of Apps that support modern risk and compliance functions. Our Apps help our clients to power their risk and compliance productivity by eliminating routine administration and using extensive MI dashboards to improve the identification and management of regulatory risk. It supports more than 200 legal entities and over 10,000 people use our system.