Europe is
lagging behind North America in
compliance with business regulations, according to a global
survey.
A high degree of risk associated with a particular regulation
does not necessarily translate into 100% compliance, the survey
report said.
Almost 46% of European companies do not comply with
Sarbanes-Oxley according to
the
survey of over 500 IT directors sponsored by IT management
software company, CA.
The survey, which included over 200 responses from European
companies, also found that over a third of European companies still
do not comply with
Basel II.
This is in contrast with North American companies where only 11%
do not comply with Sarbanes-Oxley and 17% do not comply with
Basel II.
Despite the growing burden, costs and complexity of regulatory
compliance, the survey found compliance efforts are still often
carried out manually.
More than two-thirds of respondents said they maintained
information about compliance status in multiple spreadsheets.
Half admitted that their companies do not have central
repositories to help identify the regulations and controls that
affect them.
Chris Miller,
CA area manager for the UK and Ireland, said with some European
countries having to comply with more than 20 regulations, it is
time to start automating processes that support proof of
compliance.
"Organisations are subject to significant business and cost
risks when they adopt an ad-hoc approach to compliance," said Chris
Miller.