Experts roundtable: How do financial industry regulations affect the marketing departments?

Welcome to the world of finance marketing, where navigating regulations isn't just about following rules – it's an art! In this thrilling journey through the labyrinth of compliance, we've gathered insights from top industry mavens. They'll share how they dance elegantly with regulations and turn potential headaches into opportunities for creativity and innovation.  

We posed the following query to our expert panel: How do regulations within the financial industry impact marketing departments? Additionally, what steps should marketers take to ensure compliance? 

The data security tango

One of the key issues agencies in the financial sector are now facing is data protection and providing new levels of this to clients. Discussions as to whether one is a processor or controller, whether one holds data on the website or it goes straight through to a client's CRM, and whether any form of financial transactions are processed... All provide agencies with many a headache and a good deal of cost. 

Positive has recently invested heavily in ISO and Cyber Security certifications that take a huge amount of time and effort, at a cost that is very rarely recoverable. Marketers and indeed procurement should be aware of these costs and SLAs that they are insisting agencies work to when they are putting RFPs together. If they drive too much margin out of the industry, then the issue of staying compliant will only become bigger as people look to cut costs and ignore requirements. And that way trouble lies!

Julian Reiter, Founder of Positive

Legal limbo & cookie concerns

Marketers need to regularly meet with their legal and compliance teams to ensure that every piece they are putting out is compliant with GDPR compliance and other regulations. This goes beyond standard disclaimers but includes things like cookie consent (by geography), and even new rules. 

For example, the FDIC just announced a very important rule that impacts every bank website, mobile app, and more. This includes an update that needs to be made to every single page before 1/1/25. Marketers need to work closely with everyone to ensure information is transparent and adheres to all regulations in place.

Michelle Brown, VP of Sales & Marketing at ZAG Interactive

Precision marketing in compliance canyon

Like many highly-regulated industries, financial services marketing websites often require maximum attention to detail. Precise language, pixel-perfect design adherence, and unyielding accessibility standards are common requirements that keep marketers out of the driver's seat within financial organizations. 

The power of a good DXP implementation stems from reusable content that references a single source of truth to ensure consistency. A well-structured content model coupled with high-quality frontend code takes the stress out of maintaining compliance, allowing marketers to focus on new campaigns and connecting with their customers.

Justin Sanders, VP of Strategy at BlueModus

Agility in the approval labyrinth

For clients in the UK, the financial services regulators impose a number of rules onto business which affect the messaging and agility of marketing departments. Marketers need to not only be aware of the content of their communications but also the number of stakeholders within the business who need to be engaged to approve content. 

At Positive we ensure that marketers understand their business and who is on the approval group and then utilize features such as Advanced Workflows dedicated to categories of content and triggered emails to facilitate the approval of communications. 

This not only saves time to increase agility but also reduces the need to remember which team needs to approve each type of content. Page versioning within the system preserves changes for any questions by compliance teams and regulators which can be extremely helpful as well, so marketers do not need to track changes in external systems.

Graham Barden, Senior Solution Architect at Positive

The automation alchemy  

Automating compliance workflows is crucial for marketing departments in the financial sector. Complex financial regulations impact requires strict adherence, and advanced technology can significantly improve efficiency, accuracy, and reliability in maintaining compliance. 

Automated workflows simplify the review and approval of marketing materials. This guarantees that each piece of content, such as advertisements, social media posts, or customer emails, is evaluated against regulatory standards before publication.

Roman Hutnyk, CEO & Founder at Bits Orchestra

Regulation rendezvous  

Think about how to embrace these regulations into your journey rather than trying to work around them. Regulations generally exist for the purpose of protecting customers, and that's where the goal of a marketer aligns with the regulation. Translating a must-have into an improvement for your visitors' experience and positive brand emotion is a smart thing to do.

Roel Kuik, Kentico Practice Lead at Aviva Solutions  

 

Compliance as canvas  

While the general perception is that regulation prohibits things, it can actually be seen as an opportunity. The EU is promoting interoperability and open data formats which can provide more data for personalized marketing in the financial sector. 

Now, for the focus on privacy and personal data: this is largely covered by the GDPR compliance, and every marketing manager in the financial industry has already dealt with it. However, we can expect sensitivity to these issues to continue to increase and marketing teams should ensure that they are not only compliant, but that they are building a culture where this type of information is handled with particular care.

Adam Bohm, Division Director at Actum Digital  

And there you have it, a whirlwind tour through the challenging yet fascinating realm of compliance in financial marketing. These insights from industry trailblazers demonstrate that with the right mix of technology, collaboration, and innovation, navigating the compliance landscape can be less of a tightrope walk and more of a strategic dance. 

Embrace the challenge, and watch your marketing strategies thrive within the bounds of regulations!