The research indicates that while companies expect regulatory demands to increase over the next year, few believe that they have the technology in place to properly comply with these new regulations. Nearly all respondents rated compliance with external regulators, rules and governing bodies as a top priority for meeting business goals, ahead of improving and raising customer satisfaction.

Other key findings, which further indicate the industry's increased focus on regulatory compliance issues, include:

• Sixty-nine percent of respondents said that requests for information from regulatory bodies have increased over the past 12 months; and 75 percent expect this trend to continue in the coming 12 months.
• Nearly 75 percent of the survey participants advised that they are uncertain about what is required to be retained, how it should be archived and whether they are fully compliant.
• Only 55 percent of respondents felt confident that they could find information, if requested, by a regulatory entity.
• Eighty-seven percent of respondents admitted that they did not know what volume of information they have stored, and are not sure if they are currently meeting industry record keeping and data management requirements.

David Gingell, vice president of EMEA marketing for Documentum, said: "Today's financial services companies are expected to keep a mind-boggling quantity of information. Without the appropriate compliance strategy in place, keeping track of documents, images and emails can be impossible," said Gingell. "Organisations are more apt to meet the needs of intricate compliance requirements if they have the right mixture of hardware and software for managing this information, as it moves through its lifecycle from creation, use, preservation as a record, archival or destruction."