By Mark Brousseau
If compliance challenges make you feel like a hamster running on a wheel, you’re not alone. Compliance costs grew significantly faster than net income for the financial institutions in a recent survey by the Deloitte Center for Banking Solutions. While compliance spending as a percentage of net income for the financial institutions surveyed were 2.83 percent in 2002, by 2006 it had grown to 3.69 percent, the survey of top 50 banks found. The indirect costs of compliance management are much greater, but more difficult to precisely measure.
The Deloitte Center for Banking Solutions also found that as costs have risen, financial institutions appear to have responded more by applying people to monitor compliance rather than focusing on process improvement and technology to manage it.
For instance, 95 percent of the financial institutions surveyed said their executives were much more involved in compliance management than in the past, with 40 percent saying that the time devoted to compliance had increased by more than 25 percent.
What do you think? E-mail me at m_brousseau@msn.com.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Monday, January 28, 2008
Lost Data A Worldwide Affair
By Mark Brousseau
If you think the challenges associated with securing sensitive data are confined to the United States, think again. The International Herald Tribune reports that Britain’s tax and customs service lost banking and personal data of 25 million people – nearly half the country’s population – when two computer disks went missing in the mail in November 2007.
The disks were sent to a government audit office through an internal postal service and weren’t tracked. They were missing for three weeks before the loss was reported. The disks contained details of more than 7 million families in Britain who claim a child benefit – a tax-free monthly payment available to everyone with children. The information on the disks included parents’ and children’s names, along with addresses, dates of birth, national insurance numbers and banking details. What do you think? E-mail me at m_brousseau@msn.com.
If you think the challenges associated with securing sensitive data are confined to the United States, think again. The International Herald Tribune reports that Britain’s tax and customs service lost banking and personal data of 25 million people – nearly half the country’s population – when two computer disks went missing in the mail in November 2007.
The disks were sent to a government audit office through an internal postal service and weren’t tracked. They were missing for three weeks before the loss was reported. The disks contained details of more than 7 million families in Britain who claim a child benefit – a tax-free monthly payment available to everyone with children. The information on the disks included parents’ and children’s names, along with addresses, dates of birth, national insurance numbers and banking details. What do you think? E-mail me at m_brousseau@msn.com.
Choose New Hires Wisely
By Mark Brousseau
When hiring, it’s hard to be sure what you’re getting.
But in the January issue of US Airways Magazine, career coach Donald Asher offers the following recommendations to keep from being blindsided by a resume liar.
First, trust your gut. Then, back up your gut decision with good old-fashioned rational verification. Asher writes that there are four things any hiring authority should verify for new hires: education, title, dates and salary. For instance, Asher keeps a list of accredited colleges and universities handy. If a school a candidate claims to have attended isn’t there, that’s a big warning flag, he says. Asher also suggests tracking down people who are not provided as references by the applicant and asking them for “off the record” information.
Finally, Asher recommends not telling other candidates that you’ve hired someone until the new employee has worked a full week on the job. This could save your company a great deal of embarrassment. What hiring tips can you pass along? E-mail me: m_brousseau@msn.com.
When hiring, it’s hard to be sure what you’re getting.
But in the January issue of US Airways Magazine, career coach Donald Asher offers the following recommendations to keep from being blindsided by a resume liar.
First, trust your gut. Then, back up your gut decision with good old-fashioned rational verification. Asher writes that there are four things any hiring authority should verify for new hires: education, title, dates and salary. For instance, Asher keeps a list of accredited colleges and universities handy. If a school a candidate claims to have attended isn’t there, that’s a big warning flag, he says. Asher also suggests tracking down people who are not provided as references by the applicant and asking them for “off the record” information.
Finally, Asher recommends not telling other candidates that you’ve hired someone until the new employee has worked a full week on the job. This could save your company a great deal of embarrassment. What hiring tips can you pass along? E-mail me: m_brousseau@msn.com.
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