Rethinking Spreadsheets to drive Compliance Success in South African Financial Firms

As someone working in the South African financial services industry – having been involved in both the auditing side and now in employee benefits and retirement planning side – I’ve seen how risk and compliance have become central to business sustainability. Our fiduciary duty requires accuracy, transparency and trust.

Our local Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) and country-specific legislation such as the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services (FAIS) Act, Financial Intelligence Centre Act (FICA) and Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) place strict regulations on institutions as well as on accuracy and transparency to protect both the client and the business.

With this in mind, it is concerning that so many firms continue to rely on spreadsheets for critical compliance tasks. This dependence is both outdated and risky.

The Spreadsheet Status Quo

While spreadsheets are familiar to us, they could contain common errors such as data input mistakes, formula errors and formatting issues. These documents are often built by business users without any formal training and with minimal oversight. In most cases, these spreadsheets have no formal audit process, with tracking of version histories or collaborative controls often being rudimentary and inconsistent.

These factors all lead to weak governance and impeded auditability resulting in poor compliance and accountability as there is no insight into who changed what, and when.

Furthermore, reliance on spreadsheets hinders scalability because as data volumes grow, they increasingly compromise efficiency and reliability.

The Complexity of Compliance

Regulation is not static. Regulatory frameworks such as Anti-Money Laundering (AML), POPIA and FICA are evolving faster than most firms can keep up with.

According to Walters Kluwer’s Regulatory & Risk Management Indicator 2025, 78% of compliance leaders believe that changes in compliance outpace their firm’s ability to effectively and adequately respond to them in time!

This makes an already challenging environment even more complex.

Power in Partnership

Without an experienced and knowledgeable compliance partner, organisations risk falling behind, something that financial service providers especially cannot afford. Errors in financial or compliance reporting may have serious consequences, from fines to reputational damage.

This is why a strong partner in auditing and compliance reporting plays a powerful role as they offer more than just expertise but also robust internal controls, version controls and automated monitoring.

Such partnerships also reduce operational burden and free staff up to focus on client service and strategy rather than on regulatory firefighting.

Shaping What’s Next

Spreadsheets simply aren’t enough to keep up with the demands of modern compliance. Partnering with trusted auditing and compliance providers gives your firm the expertise, systems and controls needed to stay on top of regulations and to avoid costly mistakes.

With the right partner, you can move away from error-prone manual processes, free your team up to focus on serving clients and growing the business, and have confidence that your compliance obligations are being handled reliably.

In today’s ever-evolving financial service environment, having that kind of support is not just helpful; it is essential.