Compliance crippling cost calculations of IT directors

Almost half of UK finance firms have burst the budget to meet compliance demands, according to a study by PMP Research.

While 36% of the 50 large financial service firms surveyed say they've met their targets, no companies came in under budget.

Investment levels vary dramatically from sub £500,000 to the £40m mark, but the bulk of firms are spending between £1m and £10m.

Two-fifths of firms expect their spending to ramp up to cope with incoming legislation such as MiFID and Solvency II, which are replacing Sarbanes-Oxley and IFRS as the key compliance concerns.

However, an optimistic 21% of firms believe their compliance spend will drop over the next two years.

'Our research shows that over half of the companies surveyed were out of pocket when implementing a compliance and regulatory project due to bad planning,' says Brian Male, vice president EMEA at Lawson Software, which commissioned the report.