The second survey on financial crime in the MENA region, a joint initiative of Thomson Reuters and Deloitte, follows our survey on the same topic held this time last year. From the responses, we identified five key themes: • Tone at the top – much hype, little action • Increasing investment in sophisticated technology solutions • The reorganization of processes • A drop in already low confidence levels in compliance programs • Stalled policies While last year the most pressing concern was maintaining training and awareness, followed by securing support from management and the increasing costs, this year’s top concern is coping with regulatory updates. Regulatory fatigue, resulting in paralysis, is becoming a very real concern. Whilst it may be understandable in the face of a regulatory avalanche, it is not an acceptable defense. Getting support from senior managers and securing their assistance to create the appropriate culture and awareness seems to be a particularly notable theme. It may be that compliance managers are feeling slightly frustrated in their role, caught between a rock and a hard place – increasing demand from regulatory pressures and having to keep up to date with all the changes pitched against an ongoing fight to gain increased resources. As expected, spending on compliance resources has increased and is expected to continue to increase over the next two years. The focus of investment appears to be a realignment of business processes and increasingly sophisticated technological solutions, while training and skills development lag dangerously behind. After all, the best technology in the world is meaningless without a skilled practitioner with the ability to understand and apply the knowledge that the solution provides.