REGULATIONS AND STANDARDS

International Financial Reporting Standards – (IFRS)

These standards are becoming global standards for preparing companies’ financial documents. They are developed by International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and are adopted by over 12,000 companies in over 100 countries globally. ERP systems such as SAP ERP financials provide compliance solutions for IFRS.

Basel II & III: These are issued by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, which is composed of representatives and senior authorities from the central banks of the G-10 countries. These accords are recommendations on banking laws and regulations.

PCI DSS: This is a security standard developed to facilitate adoption of data security measures on a global basis and mitigate payment security risks. It includes requirements for security management, software design, network architecture, policies, procedures and other critical protective measures.


Sarbanes-Oxley Act – (SOX): The Sarbanes-Oxley Act became law in 2002 in response to major corporate and accounting scandals. Congress created SOX to increase transparency in financial accounting and to mitigate fraud. Originally, its focus was issues surrounding accounting and finance. In 2005, its focus expanded to include human resources supply chain management and information technology.

Banks and financial institutions may have risk control procedures in place complying with these regulations, but are still exposed to fraud. This vulnerability is due to dependence on passwords for security and negligence in carrying out the security procedures diligently. According to “IT Departments on Data Security: A Research Concepts Survey”, 1 out of 4 organizations surveyed last year had a data breach. Most of these companies viewed security as a high priority. According to this survey, only 1 in every 100 employees consistently follows security policy.