Some 40 percent of in-house legal and compliance professionals in the Asia-Pacific region find changing local and global regulatory requirements a major challenge, a new report has found.

The report, titled “Facing the future: Developing a response to regulatory change” was released jointly by TMF Group and Asia Risk. It found that an alarming 57 percent of respondents did not take any action in 2018 to react to regulatory changes, and some 62 percent had no any actions planned for 2019.

The report surveyed more than 100 seniors across the region. It also found that businesses are continuing to struggle with both the amount, as well as the pace of change. On being asked to rate on a scale of 1-10 their confidence in their firm’s ability to remain compliant in 2019, over one-fifth of the respondents valued their confidence at five or less.

“In recent years APAC businesses have had to deal with a huge array of new regulations. Most firms are only now becoming aware of the size of the challenge they pose – but not all have yet managed to adapt. This is a crucial issue for the region’s companies, as failure to comply can have seriously detrimental consequences,” said Leila Szwarc, global head of compliance and strategic regulatory services at TMF Group.

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