(Bloomberg) — Financial industry executives are almost as concerned about the growing demands of regulatory compliance as they are with market volatility, according to today’s survey of 400 financial companies by SunGard Financial Systems LLC and Longitude Research.
Preoccupation with existing and anticipated regulatory reforms dwarfs concerns such as weak growth outlook, shareholder pressure, liquidity shortfalls or the crackdown on tax avoidance, the survey showed.
The researchers studied senior executives from insurance, capital markets, asset management, retail banking and wealth management firms.
Compliance has resulted in allocation of staffing, time and resources during the past two years, according to the report. Regulatory burdens caused 50 percent to report a loss of focus from core business and 34 percent expect lower returns to shareholders in the future.