Global firm not ready for EU general data protection regulation compliance

Intensifying regulatory pressures are top of mind for business leaders, with 78 per cent of respondents expressing increasing concern about data protection and data privacy compliance.
 
This is according to the third biennial Ernst & Young (EY) Global Forensic Data Analytics Survey, which examined the responses of 745 executives from 19 countries and analyzed the legal, compliance and fraud risks that global companies face and the use of forensic data analytics (FDA) to manage them.
   
However, with less than four months to go until the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into force on May 25, only 33 per cent of respondents’ state that they have a plan in place to comply with the EU legislation.

While the average response of those in Europe was more positive, with 60 per cent indicating they have a compliance plan in place, there is still much more work to be done in other markets where significantly fewer companies indicated readiness for GDPR compliance including Africa and the Middle East (27 per cent), the Americas (13 per cent) and Asia-Pacific (12 per cent).
   
EY Global Fraud Investigation & Dispute Services leader, Andrew Gordon, saids: “The pace of regulatory change continues to accelerate and the introduction of data protection and data privacy laws, such as GDPR, are major compliance challenges for global organizations. But businesses that adopt FDA technologies can achieve significant advantages, benefitting from more effective risk management and increased business transparency across all of their operations.”
   
EY Nigeria Forensic/Fraud Investigation & Dispute Services leader, Linus Osita Okeke, said businesses in Nigeris need to take over more than a passing interest in GDPR because of the significant impact of this piece of EU legislation on businesses outside of the EU.
   
According to the report, respondents expressed a strong belief in the value of FDA and its benefits for an organization’s governance program, which is evidenced by a 51 per cent increase in average yearly, spend per respondent compared with 2016. Companies have significantly developed beyond relying on the basic FDA tools of the last decade, with 14 per cent of respondents stating that they are already using robotic process automation (RPA) to manage legal, compliance and fraud risks, and a further 39 per cent stating they are likely to adopt RPA within the next 12 months, followed by artificial intelligence (AI) at 38 per cent.
   
The survey found that 42 per cent of businesses believe that data protection and data privacy regulations have a significant impact on the design or use of FDA. The survey further revealed that 13 per cent of respondents indicated that they currently use FDA to achieve GDPR compliance, with more than half (52 per cent) of the respondents indicating that they are currently in the process of analyzing exactly which FDA tools they would use to assist them with achieving compliance.