NEW HAVEN, Conn.—A new report has found that during 2014 regulators issued 600 enforcement actions against all financial institutions.
It is the second consecutive year regulators reached that threshold, according to Continuity’s Banking Compliance Index. In the fourth quarter alone, regulators issued 135 enforcement actions and more than 4,000 pages of regulatory changes, according to Continuity, a provider of compliance automation solution for community financial institutions.
The Index found that the average FI devotes more than $147,000 to manage the 302 regulatory changes introduced in 2014. Over the course of the year, the equivalent of 1.57 full-time employees were required at each FI to manage this incremental burden, the company stated in a release.
“The rate of escalating enforcement actions isn’t a surprising development—these levels represent the new normal,” said Pam Perdue, executive vice president of regulatory insight at Continuity. “Over the past couple of years, we have consistently seen more than 130 enforcement actions each quarter. And the sad reality is that many of these enforcement actions are stemming from older regulations that bankers have years of experience addressing.”