Leader: Get off the SOX compliance hamster wheel

Are you on the regulation hamster wheel, wheezing as you try to keep up with the latest edict dumped on you from above? Are you pulling out the system you put in last month because it doesn't comply with this week's ruling?

Regulation isn't going to stop anytime soon, unless we can find something more useful for all the bureaucrats to do - like breaking rocks.

But don't make the mistake of chopping and changing each time a new package of red tape drops off the regulatory production line.

Migrating to new systems might have got you through SOX last year but what if the advice from the auditors is different this year - and requires yet more expensive changes when you'd rather be working on new projects?

If you are sitting there smugly because SOX didn't touch you, what about MiFID looming on the horizon? And what if European regulation tsars decide they want their own SOX to pull on too?

Instead of rushing to comply each time, look for ways to jump off this nasty merry-go-round.

Investment bank DrKW has realised this already. The key is to have the right environment in place to cope with every regulatory curve ball, rather than just deal with each one as it comes along. After all, what most regulation wants to create - consistent and secure processes and systems - is what most companies would aim for anyway.

Can you build your business processes and IT systems so they can bend to each regulatory whim without being broken by them? Try it - you'll save yourself a lot of effort in the long run.