Regulators publish documents, while financial institutions must identify and manage the obligations within them. That gap is where much of the cost and risk in regulatory change management sits. A consultation, speech, rule or enforcement notice may contain many separate requirements. Some are new, some amend an existing position and some have no practical effect on a particular firm. A document-level alert does not resolve any of those questions.

The sheer volume of new regulations is increasing at an unprecedented rate, creating a density of obligations that manual processes cannot withstand. For compliance officers, the pressure is relentless: 64% of banking respondents in a recent risk survey cited "managing evolving regulatory change" as a high-priority concern, and 61% see reduced regulatory burdens as somewhat or very unlikely.