"Regulatory compliance has proven burdensome for financial services firms for more than 10 years now. With the amount of mandatory change hopefully being reduced in coming years, firms now have the chance to take stock and consider programmes of change to optimise processes, minimise operational risk, and identify opportunities for automation."

"Financial crime compliance has become too costly for larger organisations, who've outdated and inefficient controls, and too arduous for smaller organisations, who've started to receive greater regulatory scrutiny. Business lines must take greater ownership to drive innovation and improve efficiency."

"Rapid developments in technology – RPA, Machine learning, and Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) – mean that the long-time aspiration for Finance to drive business value and move away from the operational aspects, can become reality. A rethink of the Finance organisation, delivery model, resource mix and talent management will be required to shift to this new way of working."

"Following a spate of fines in recent years, regulators are now looking to firms to be proactive in how they manage conduct risk. Firms need to look at their conduct risk framework holistically and embed conduct risk management into BAU, including into the performance management process, to enable them to incentivise and reward good conduct."