BY Fraser Tennant
Increasing regulatory pressures such as the forthcoming EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) are a major concern for business leaders, according to an EY survey published this week.
According to the third biennial EY Global Forensic Data Analytics Survey – ‘How can you disrupt risk in an era of digital transformation?’ – which examined the responses of 745 executives from 19 countries, 78 percent of respondents expressed increasing concern about data protection and data privacy compliance issues, specifically the GDPR.
Indeed, with less than four months to go until the GDPR comes into force on 25 May 2018, only 33 percent of survey respondents said they have a plan in place to comply with the EU legislation. Moreover, while the average response of respondents in Europe was more positive, with 60 percent indicating they have a GDPR compliance plan in place, the survey notes that much work remains to be done in other markets, including Africa and the Middle East (27 percent), the Americas (13 percent) and Asia-Pacific (12 percent).
“The pace of regulatory change continues to accelerate and the introduction of data protection and data privacy laws, such as GDPR, are major compliance challenges for global organisations,” said Andrew Gordon, EY global fraud investigation & dispute services leader. “But businesses that adopt forensic data analytics (FDA) technologies can achieve significant advantages, benefiting from more effective risk management and increased business transparency across all of their operations.”
The survey also found that 42 percent of businesses believe that data protection and data privacy regulations have a significant impact on the design or use of FDA. EY’s examination further revealed that 13 percent of respondents indicated that they currently use FDA to achieve GDPR compliance, with more than half (52 percent) of the respondents indicating that they are currently in the process of analysing exactly which FDA tools they would use to assist them with achieving compliance.
Overall, survey respondents stated that increased adoption of, and spending on, advanced FDA technologies, needs to be matched with greater investment in skilled resources.
Mr Gordon concluded: “While it is encouraging to see that investment in advanced FDA is increasing, companies need to hire the right talent and invest in core skills such as domain knowledge and data analytics in order to be successful in managing their risk profile.”
