Report Extract: Regulatory Change in a global bank

In this extract from our ‘RegTech for Regulatory Change’ report, Colin Ware, Regulatory Product Manager at BNY Mellon, discusses his experience of regulatory change within a global bank.

Following the success of our report, RegTech for Regulatory Change, in collaboration with Burnmark, CUBE has extracted the key interviews with RegTech experts.

In this extract, Colin Ware, Regulatory Product Manager at BNY Mellon, discusses his experience of regulatory change within a global bank – from juggling regulatory change to implementing major regulatory initiatives.

What are your thoughts on the challenges on managing the variety, volume and complexity of regulatory requirements?

BNY Mellon, as a major financial institution, is impacted by regulatory change on a global basis. We recognise the importance of effectively monitoring and reacting to changes in the regulatory environment, both for our own business, and to provide good quality services to clients. In order to do this, BNY Mellon has a global regulatory reform structure, consisting of executive management, business leaders, and experts from our legal, compliance and corporate programme management functions. Where appropriate, BNY Mellon not only monitors for regulatory change, but actively contributes to the policy debate as a thought leader in the industry.

Major regulatory initiatives initially concentrated on the market infrastructure and mainly impacted the Investment Banking community. New regulations are focusing more on improving market transparency and growth. BNY Mellon Asset Servicing clients now find themselves impacted by regulations more than ever before which involve:

• Monitoring complex regulations
• Reporting to regulators
• Preparing reports
• Demonstrating compliance

BNY Mellon is able to assess the impact of regulations through our data and digital strategy model, which provide the analytical tools required to manage the ever-expanding requirements provided by regulations globally.

As products and services evolve in relation to regulatory change (and in response to client demand), we keep our clients informed of the impact of such change as it relates to the products and services BNY Mellon delivers. Many client conversations take the form of a regulatory review agenda discussing items on the near, medium and longer-term horizon and how BNY Mellon can assist our clients address impacts to their business models. In certain instances, these give rise to new commercial propositions that allow BNY Mellon to deliver specific services to clients.

Can you share how you manage regulatory change at the bank and for your customers?

BNY Mellon recognises the importance of effectively monitoring and reacting to changes in the regulatory environment, both for its own business, and to provide good quality services to clients. In order to do this, BNY Mellon has a global regulatory reform structure, consisting of executive management, business leaders, and experts from our legal, compliance and corporate programme management functions. Where appropriate, BNY Mellon not only monitors for regulatory change, but actively contributes to the policy debate as a thought leader in the industry. In this regard, BNY Mellon engages with policymakers and industry associations (many of the industry associations in which we participate also represent our clients).

BNY Mellon has an internal team that is responsible for the identification of new and/ or amending regulations which have the potential to impact BNY Mellon directly or indirectly. This process utilises a daily review of regulatory websites and regulatory intelligence tools and, in conjunction with stakeholders from risk, legal and compliance, works to ensure all BNY Mellon relevant regulations are identified and analysed for potential impact with input from the relevant business line and product owner.

In addition, we have a robust policies and procedures database that addresses adherence with laws, rules and regulations for all business lines. Existing policies and procedures are assessed annually and updated accordingly. In addition to these company-wide policies, individual business lines have departmental policy and procedure manuals that provide guidance for our staff for applicable processes, workflows and regulations.

Can you briefly describe some of the transformation programmes that the bank has undertaken to tackle regulatory change?

As the regulatory environment evolves, BNY Mellon’s goal is to make sure that clients remain at the forefront of developments through effective engagement on topics and effective dissemination of information…