Q&A with EY's Steve Beattie and Jake Jacobson

Naima Essing, an analyst with ALM Intelligence, caught up with Steve Beattie, EY's Financial Crimes Operations Solution leader and Jake Jacobson, EY's Managed Services CIO and Chief Product officer at EY's new wavespace innovation center in New York to discuss their financial crimes consulting offering. 

ALM Intelligence: What are the major trends you are seeing in the compliance consulting market?

Beattie: There is an overwhelming sense of fatigue by financial institutions after the wave of post-crisis regulation. Financial institutions threw enormous amounts of time, money and people resources in putting programs in place to achieve compliance with a myriad of new and constantly evolving requirements and expectations over the past decade. Though there is a feeling we may have hit a peak in regulation under the new presidential administration, spending by financial institutions remains elevated. The nature of the expenditure, however, is changing. With operating costs 25 percent higher on average than before the crisis, many institutions are under intense pressure to find ways to lower their compliance costs while maintaining the quality of their programs and this need is driving a second wave in spending by financial institutions on new digital and analytical technology solutions that are capable of dramatically improving both the efficiency and efficacy of the detection, monitoring and reporting activities that make up compliance programs.