By Maria Wakem

When it comes to compliance on a shoestring, small companies face some big challenges. From a technology standpoint, most compliance systems are expensive and difficult to manage. Large financial services companies have the money and staff to support these systems, but small firms carry the burden of meager budgets and skeletal IT staffs that often are already overwhelmed managing multiple projects.

Most small firms have at least one employee dedicated to compliance, but the responsibilities associated with meeting internal and external requirements often are shared by other employees. Sales and operations personnel who aren’t formally in compliance roles spend as much as 30% of their time on compliance-related functions, according to a recent global survey by IBM Business Consulting of more than 200 financial services firms.

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