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Navigating the year ahead Asia Pacific financial services regulatory outlook 2017

This paper sets out the major regulatory themes that the Deloitte Centre for Regulatory Strategy expects to dominate the regulatory agenda for Asia Pacific financial institutions over the coming year. It explores these themes at an international and national level, providing our view of the significant regulatory events expected in the year ahead and beyond.

2016 has been a challenging year for the financial sector, with economic and political uncertainty complicating the completion of the post-crisis regulatory repair agenda. While Asia Pacific has not been as significantly impacted as the EU, UK and US, financial institutions in the region are still faced with moderating economic growth, complex regulation and competition from new technology enabled players. The political events that have occurred elsewhere will also, in time, have an influence in the region, particularly if there is a trend to dismantle efforts aimed at global harmonisation of regulation.

Despite the economic and political uncertainty, much of the prescriptive post-crisis rule making is nearing completion and the year ahead will be one of implementing and embedding these measures, as well as confronting remaining or new frontiers.

We see four major regulatory themes dominating the outlook for Asia Pacific financial services firms during 2017:

  • Maintaining the resilience of financial institutions and the financial system, including “Basel IV”, ICS, stress-testing and recovery and resolution planning.
  • Ensuring firms have robust governance frameworks and are cultivating the right culture.
  • Increasingly intense and data driven supervision.
  • Managing the impact of innovations in technology, including disruption from FinTech, the growing interest in RegTech and building cyber resilience.

While each theme may have a varying relative level of importance across each institution and jurisdiction, we believe that in combination these themes will dominate strategic considerations in the coming period across the Asia Pacific region.

Financial Services Regulatory Outlook 2017

Timeline – key regulatory events 2017 and beyond

The Deloitte Centre for Regulatory Strategy is a source of critical insights and advice, designed to assist the world’s largest financial institutions manage the strategic and aggregate impact of regional and international regulatory policy.

With regional hubs in the Americas, Asia Pacific and EMEA, the Centre combines the strength of Deloitte’s network of experienced risk, regulatory, and industry professionals — including a deep roster of former regulators, industry specialists, and business advisers — with a rich understanding of the impact of regulations on business models and strategy.

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