Compliance in Financial Services Marketing Operations (2024)

Compliance is just part of the job for marketers in financial services and other highly regulated industries. Every company has a set of systems and processes in place to try and help avoid the cost of being non-compliant.

The biggest challenge for marketers around compliance isn’t the processes or the number of rules and regulations, but rather the fact that governing boards and external organisations that enforce the rules are constantly changing them. With each change, three key areas of marketing are affected such as how the company can communicate, how they market their products and services and also what data they are allowed to collect about customers.

Here we offer three tips on how you can better manage compliance in your company.

1. Be informed

While all companies in the financial services industry have a dedicated compliance team that ensures all material leaving the company is compliant to both internal and external rules and regulations, marketers can help save themselves time in the long run by being informed. You can subscribe to the governing board or external organisation’s newsletters or alerts. You will be notified when something changes which allows you as a marketer to follow the correct guidelines when designing and executing a campaign. When you then send your work to the compliance team it’s already following the most up to date regulations meaning you can help speed up the process of a compliance check.

2. Keep your tool box filled

A builder wouldn’t show up to work without a hammer and nails and a marketer needs their tools too. Marketing is becoming increasingly more difficult thanks to the digital era we live and work in. Everything is digital, there is an app for everything and there is software for just about everything as well. Through working with companies in the finance industry we see that it can be difficult for marketers to implement new tools (digital systems and new processes) because compliance and accountability is such a big part of working life. Therefore legacy systems can sometimes remain in use, even if ways of working aren’t as efficient or as up to date as they could be. But marketing is changing rapidly and will only continue to change in the coming years. Technology isn’t going to slow down, and therefore change needs to be embraced now. Sometimes all it takes is for one person to champion and drive a change project for transformation to happen. Is that person you?

3. Be aware of globalisation

Thanks to the digital era we live in globalisation is very real. Our products and services can now be globally consumed. Especially in the finance industry, marketing material is often the primary source of information for consumers, hence it being so important that the material is compliant and not misleading. While it may seem obvious, it’s important to remember that rules and regulations are not the same worldwide. Don’t think because of globalisation there is also standardisation; more times than not marketing campaigns will need to be localised to fit within the compliance rules of different countries, regions and markets. Take advantage of globalisation, but make sure you take a localised approach rather than a standardised approach.

Don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any other tips to share or you’d like to know more about how Brandworkz Digital Asset Management Software can help you manage compliant marketing processes.

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