Regulatory change is high on the agenda at financial services firms, second only to market volatility as a worry among executives, new research from SunGard has found.
Senior executives now worry that changes starting to take effect this year are distracting attention from core business activities and potentially hindering their firms' ability to grow.
Adapting to new regulations is also causing leaders to rethink their approach to compliance and to restructure their organizations accordingly.
The SunGard survey, which was conducted by Longitude Research in late 2013, polled 400 senior financial services executives across the globe.
The survey found that the pressure of dealing with regulatory change had expanded beyond compliance departments into the corporate suite.
Fifty percent of respondents warned that dealing with regulatory change had affected shareholder returns and the ability to invest for the future.
Forty-six percent of respondents described themselves as "highly stressed" by the current pressure of regulatory change, and saw little prospect of imminent improvement.
The broad nature of change was driving a more cross-functional response within businesses, according to the survey. Best-in-class institutions were breaking through siloes, allowing for a more efficient response to the issue.
