Financial services and insurance companies live under some of the toughest compliance rules in the world. Regulations keep multiplying. Cyber threats keep evolving. And the penalties for getting it wrong range from multi-million-dollar fines to reputational damage that takes years to recover.
The problem? Too many GRC programs are still manual, reactive, and siloed. Outdated tools and processes force teams to spend countless hours chasing evidence and preparing for point-in-time audits. And still, they can’t keep up with emerging cyber risks.
It doesn’t have to stay that way. With workflow orchestration and automation, financial services firms can turn GRC from a compliance checkbox into a proactive, strategic function that strengthens resilience, builds trust, and creates more room for innovation.
Cyber risk is escalating in financial services
Financial services and insurance companies are expanding digital services to meet customer expectations and cut costs. Every new system, app, or integration expands the attack surface.
Cloud adoption in particular has created new risks. Misconfigurations and weak controls in SaaS platforms are common entry points. Recent breaches, including Allianz Life, show how attackers exploit these gaps, exposing millions of customer records and shaking trust.
One report warns that financial institutions face 300 times more cyber attacks than firms in other sectors and large banks say 45% of employees are still susceptible to phishing.
AI is making it easier for attackers to scale social engineering campaigns, victim reconnaissance, exploit development, and more.
Such techniques make successful ransomware attacks more likely.
Even though cyber compliance obligations are multiplying, GRC teams are still expected to manage compliance and resilience with the same stretched resources.
Financial services face growing regulatory pressure
Financial services and insurance companies are under scrutiny from every direction. Regulators expect compliance with a growing list of frameworks, including:
Data protection: GDPR, NIS2
Financial crime: AML, KYC
US rules: GLBA, SOX, NYDFS Cybersecurity Regulation
EU rules: DORA, with fines up to 2% of global turnover
It is no surprise that 85% of businesses say compliance has grown more complex in the past three years.
The consequences are serious. Average breach costs in financial services already sit at $5.6 million, second only to healthcare. Non-compliance adds more risk: reputational damage, lost customers, and in some cases, even jail time for executives. There’s more than direct financial costs to count.
The bigger risk is loss of customer trust. In an open banking world, reputational damage quickly turns into lost business.
At the same time, teams are stretched thin. Strict breach-reporting timelines and heavy audit demands push them toward burnout.
How modern GRC drives resilience, trust, and growth
Legacy GRC tools weren’t built for today’s financial services and insurance environment. They lock teams into point-in-time checks, disconnected systems, and heavy manual work. The result is bottlenecks, errors, and people stuck chasing evidence instead of managing risk.
There is a better way. With workflow orchestration and automation, GRC can move beyond a compliance checkbox to become a driver of efficiency, trust, and growth. For example:
Automation streamlines evidence collection, audit prep, and audit trails. This saves hundreds of hours and reduces manual errors.
Continuous monitoring delivers real-time visibility into regulatory and operational risks. This keeps firms ahead of emerging threats.
Integrated workflows connect legal, IT, compliance, security and other business units. This breaks down silos and creates shared ownership of GRC.
Customer experience improves when stronger security controls can be enforced without slowing down onboarding, claims, or transactions.
The impact goes far beyond efficiency. Mature GRC programs help financial services firms reduce operational risk, protect customer trust, and build the resilience needed to compete in a digital-first market.
A practical path forward
Maturing GRC for financial services and insurance companies doesn’t mean overhauling everything at once. Start small, build momentum, and prove value early. Here’s how to start:
Lay the foundation: Define requirements, set clear processes, and make sure audits and risk mitigations are covered.
Start small: Pick one or two pain points, such as evidence collection or risk intake, and automate them first.
Build bridges: Show GRC’s value across legal, IT, finance, and executive teams. Align on shared metrics to get buy-in.
Integrate wisely: Connect tools to existing systems to avoid silos and accelerate time to value.
Shift to continuous monitoring: Move away from point-in-time checks to real-time oversight and testing.
Elevate people: Use orchestration and automation to free GRC teams for analysis, strategy, and higher-value work. And deliver clear comms, training and support to drive adoption.
The key is to treat GRC as a living program. Monitor, iterate, and expand over time. It is the only way to stay ahead of shifting regulations and evolving threats.
Beyond compliance: Building resilience in financial services
For financial services firms and insurance companies, compliance will always be the baseline. Mature GRC can deliver far more: stronger resilience, smoother customer experiences, and the trust needed to grow in a competitive market.
With orchestration and automation, GRC shifts from a manual, reactive burden to a proactive, strategic enabler. Download our GRC guide to see how leading companies are transforming their GRC in practice, with real examples and steps you can take today.